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COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 



PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 



PRACTICAL 
HOMEMAKING 

A Textbook for Young Housekeepers 



BY 

MABEL HYDE KITTREDGE 

I- 

PRESIDENT OF THE ASSOCIATION OF PRACTICAL HOUSEKEEPING CENTERS 
NEW YORK CITY 




NEW YORK 

THE CENTURY CO. 

1914 






Copyright, 1914, by 
The Century Co. 



Published, April, igi^ 



APR -3 1914 



©CI,A371200 



PREFACE 

" What you would have appear in the life of the people 
that you must put into the schools." 

The aim of this book is to perfect the future house- 
wife by arousing an interest in homemaking, by im- 
parting a knowledge of the important theoretical and 
practical questions that arise in housekeeping, and by 
promoting habits of industry, order, cleanliness, and 
thrift. 

Homemaking has now taken its place among the 
great professions, precisely because it has been dis- 
covered that housekeeping is an art dependent upon 
skilled labor and effective tools in the same way that 
any manufacturing business is so dependent. 

The nurse and the doctor are skilled laborers trained 
to relieve physical suffering and to cure disease. The 
homemaker is to be a skilled worker trained to rear 
children and prevent disease. She is to create centers 
of order, health, and happiness. She must realize that 
the way the dishes are washed, the beds aired, the food 
cooked, may save or ruin the important business of 
making a home. 

The skilled housekeeper does even the smallest duty 
perfectly; she plans carefully and executes her plans in 
the manner best calculated to save time, energy, and 
money. Out of the very smallest house she can create 
a home. 



NOTES TO TEACHERS 

This book is designed for girls in their first year of 
domestic-science studies. It contains a complete year's 
course in homemaking, and is to be followed by a more 
advanced, second-year course. 

Lessons. 

These lessons are to be given in housekeeping cen- 
ters, or model homes. Such centers are to be built in 
the school-building, and modeled as nearly as possible 
upon the homes of pupils ; or they may be actual apart- 
ments, or small houses, rented near the school-building. 

Furnishing. 

The furnishing of these centers, or model homes, is 
a lesson in color, beauty, economy, comfort, and sani- 
tation. Each center should be completely equipped for 
a family of five or more persons. When possible all 
work incidental to the furnishing of a Housekeeping 
Center should be done by the pupils under the direc- 
tion of a teacher. This will be an experience in the 
selection of color ; will give many lessons in such hand 
work as sewing, simple carpentry work, staining and 
painting. The knowledge and value of materials and 
the planning for the economy of space can be best 
learned if the children themselves do as much of the 
furnishing as is practical. 



NOTES TO TEACHERS 

How to Use this Book. 

In most cases, a chapter is one complete lesson. At 
the rate of one lesson a week, a group of pupils should 
complete the book in one school year. 

Object of Teaching Homemaking in a Model 
Home. 

To build up a home, orderly, beautiful, comfortable 
— as nearly as possible what a home should be ; so that 
all the persons who see this home can use it as a model. 
Also, by lessons in actual home activities to awaken 
in every school-girl a sense of home-responsibility and 
a love for homemaking. 

Instruction. 

The instruction is to consist of practical lessons in 
furnishing, sweeping, cooking, cleaning, laundry-work, 
sewing, and accounting; in home, municipal, and per- 
sonal hygiene; in the chemistry of food; in the dis- 
tribution of the income; in reading, and in social life 
at home, including hospitality. All of these subjects 
are to be taught in such home surroundings as the 
pupils are accustomed to. 

Method. 

The method of teaching is by groups of pupils; 
preferably no group to exceed ten pupils for one 
teacher at one time. 

Pupils' Costume. 

White cap. 

Apron — to cover dress entirely, but without long 
sleeves. 



NOTES TO TEACHERS 

Towel — One for each pupil, with tape to pin at 
side. 

Dress — A light-colored wash dress is the best kind 
for the kitchen. This is not always possible for the 
pupils, but in the teacher's use of this sort of dress 
the ideal costume will be observable. 

The teacher's dress is to have elbow sleeves, if pos- 
sible. Long sleeves are uncomfortable to work in, 
and hard to keep clean. Teachers' uniforms vary ac- 
cording to the schools from which they have been 
graduated, but are always easily laundered. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I HOUSEHOLD HYGIENE AND FURXISHING • • • 3 

II CARE OF THE STOVE lO 

HI COCOA AND HOW TO COOK IT 16 

IV MILK-TOAST; RULES FOR DISHWASHING ... 19 
V CREAM-TOAST WITH CHEESE; RULES FOR WASH- 

23 



ING DISH-TOWELS 



VI CEREALS 

VII BEDS AND BED-MAKING 



VIII MORNING SWEEPING AND DUSTING OF BEDROOM 
IX PERSONAL HYGIENE 



25 
29 

34 

Zl 

X SETTING THE BREAKFAST-TABLE 45 

XI PREPARING BREAKFAST 47 

XII BREAKFAST COMPLETE 4g 

XIII FOOD VALUE 51 

XIV PLUMBING LESSON 57 

XV WATER-CLOSETS AND WASH-TUBS 63 

XVI GARBAGE, REFUSE AND ASHES 66 

XVII POTATOES -^2 

XVIII CLEANING THE KITCHEN, CLOSETS, KITCHEN 

UTENSILS -j-j 

XIX CLEANING THE KITCHEN, ICE-BOX AND WINDOW- 
BOX 82 

XX THOROUGH CLEANING OF KITCHEN 85 

XXI APPLES f 88 

XXII CLEANING A BEDROOM CLOSET, CLEANING A BED gi 

XXIII WEEKLY BEDROOM CLEANING 93 

XXIV CLEANING BRASS, SILVER, AND NICKEL .... 95 
XXV TABLE ETIQUETTE; AFTERNOON TEA 97 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 
XXVI ODORS 102 

XXVII BATHING SICK PERSON IN BED AND CHANGING 

THE SHEETS 105 

XXVIII THE INVALID'S TRAY 112 

XXIX FRESH VEGETABLES FOR PRACTICAL HOMEMAK- 

ING 117 

XXX GOOD THINGS TO REMEMBER THAT ARE OFTEN 

FORGOTTEN I20 

XXXI TESTS FOR PUPILS 122 

XXXII QUESTIONS ON HOMEMAKING I25 

RECIPES 129 

APPENDIX 137 

INDEX 149 



PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 



PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

CHAPTER I 
HOUSEHOLD HYGIENE AND FURNISHING 

The home is the most important workshop in the 
world. It is there our babies grow strong or weak; 
it is from there our fathers and brothers go forth 
good workers or bad; and there at home we find 
mothers who are happy or nervous. It is all condi- 
tioned by the atmosphere, the order, and the intelli- 
gence that girls and women put into a home. It is in 
the place you call " my house " that the greatest busi- 
ness of life is carried on. 

Surely in this wonderful workshop we cannot have 
useless things about. Every article of furnishing 
must add to the usefulness of the home or to the com- 
fort of the family, or contribute real beauty. Do not 
give space to anything that is not necessary in at least 
one of these three ways. Give it away if it can be 
of use to any one else. Throw it away if it serves 
no purpose. 

Remember that space, uncluttered, empty space, is 
beautiful, restful, and very important to health and 
happiness. Strive to have space in your house rather 
than to have things in your house. 

Every girl should have a definite opinion about 

3 



4 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

every article in her home. We must be careful not to 
hurt the feelings of other people, but every girl has a 
right to know whether she does or does not like every 
single object in her home. By thinking for herself a 
girl forms her taste. There is good taste and bad 
taste. If you learn to like beautiful things and to dis- 
like bad colors, crowded rooms, and useless objects, 
you have good taste. The poorest home can be in 
good taste. The richest house is often in very bad 
taste. 

For practice every girl should go about her own 
home and looking at every article in it ask the ques- 
tion : "Is this of any use?" To broken china you 
would have to answer " No." To a clock that can't 
keep time, no matter how beautiful it is, you must 
answer " No." To paper ornaments you must answer 
" No." Let every pupil try this in one house, and see 
what a long list of " No's " she will have. 

You are now going to work in a model home. 

The workman has a model to copy when he sets to 
work. If a girl is making flowers the factory pro- 
vides a model. If a girl wants to trim a hat, she finds 
a hat that she likes and copies it. And so, to-day we 
are beginning a course of study in how to make a 
home ; and we start out with a perfect home as a copy ; 
not a rich house, or a large house, but a home that 
would be a good place to live in. 

The lesson to-day is the study of this model house 
and its furnishings. 

The first thing a good workman does when enter- 
ing a new shop is to look about the shop and note its 



HOUSEHOLD HYGIENE 5 

construction; he examines the tools he is to work 
with, to see if he understands them, if he can handle 
them intelligently; and learns where each has to be 
kept when not in use. That is exactly what you must 
do in this home workshop to-day. 

Floors. 

The floors have no carpets on them. Why? 
Think of all the grown people and children who walk 
from the dirty streets into your home; every pair of 
shoes brings in some dirt and leaves it on the floor. 
Then dust comes in through the window and gathers 
on the floor. H we have carpets, the dirt and dust 
gradually get under the carpet and no matter how 
hard you work, unless you take up the carpet very 
often, the floor is never really clean. Dust is alive; 
that is, it has germs in it. Some of these germs do 
no harm; some are poison and carry disease to the 
people who breathe them in. We must do everything 
we can to get rid of dust. Therefore, we have no 
carpets, but stained floors, and these we can wipe 
up with a damp cloth. 

In every good workshop it is desirable to make the 
best use of time. Sweeping carpets takes a great deal 
of time that can be better spent in other ways. 

Walls. 

The walls in this model home are painted, and 
painted a light color. Paint washes and paper does 
not. A light color is cheerful and better for the eyes. 
In many homes the windows do not let in enough light 



6 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

to make it easy to read in all parts of the room or to 
see dirt in all corners. Walls painted a light yel- 
low do much to lighten the room. But no one rule 
can be laid down. For example, Italian people like 
brighter colors than Jewish people. Each family 
must follow out its own taste. 

Kitchen Furnishing. 

Now that we have talked about the floors and the 
walls, the kitchen furnishing seems the most im- 
portant observation to make next. 

In the kitchen the floor is always plain wood or 
oilcloth. It must always be possible to scrub the 
kitchen floor. The walls of the kitchen must be 
painted and washable, even if the other rooms are 
papered. In every kitchen, no matter how large or 
how small, there will be always some ironware, tin- 
ware, woodenware, cleaning-cloths, dish-towels, im- 
plements for washing and ironing, brooms and 
brushes, dry groceries and jars to contain them; 
each one of these things must have, so to speak, a 
home of its own so that it can be found in the dark, 
if necessary. 

A nail here or there, a little thought as to where to 
put things in the first place, and a determination al- 
ways to put each article back in its own place will 
make housekeeping a pleasure and the kitchen so com- 
fortable and orderly that it will be a good room in 
the house to dine in. 

Now, examine everything in the kitchen, telling its 
use and why it is where it is. 



HOUSEHOLD HYGIENE 7 

In this same way go through each room giving 
careful attention to: 

Beds. 

Have iron beds, never wooden ones. 

Bureaus. 

See that the bureau has drawers that open and shut 
easily; that the handles are wooden or good brass 
(not light cheap handles) ; that there is a mirror over 
the bureau. 

Chairs. 

Look at each chair and see that it can be thoroughly 
dusted with a damp duster. We do not want any part 
of any chair to hold dust. 

Tables. 

A table can be beautiful even if it is of plain wood. 
It does not need a dusty cloth to make it pretty. Any 
table can be stained and waxed. The use of a table 
is to hold things. 

Curtains. 

In a later lesson we will take up the various curtain 
materials. To-day we notice that the curtains are 
thin, so that the light may come through; short, so 
that the dust from the floor cannot reach them; and 
made of washable material. 

As in the kitchen, closets were found for china, pots 
and pans, kitchen linen, and everything connected with 



8 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

cooking, in the other rooms there must be places for 
bed linen, table linen, closets for clothes, shelves for 
books, and a desk of some kind. Also, boxes or racks 
for toys and stationery, boots and shoes. A large side- 
board takes up a great deal of room, and is a useless 
piece of furniture. 

As we go through a model home, we will notice 
other articles such as scrap-baskets, lamps, and orna- 
ments. The scrap-basket should add to the beauty of 
the home. Every ornament must have some good 
reason for being in our house. A vase holds flowers ; 
brass candlesticks hold candles that give light; pic- 
ture frames hold photographs of our family or friends : 
a copper bowl can be used for fruit ; a samovar is very 
beautiful as well as useful. If an article has no use 
do not let it clutter up your house. 

Every girl will carry home from this furnishing- 
lesson four strong impressions : 

First. As far as possible have all parts and all 
articles in the house washable or capable of being 
cleaned. 

Second. Have every article in good order, serving 
some purpose. 

Third. Let nothing stay in the house that is not 
useful or beautiful. 

Fourth. Have a place for every object; even if it 
is only a nail to hang it on. 

Three of the New York Tenement-House Laws 
have direct connection with this first chapter on the 
Home. 



HOUSEHOLD HYGIENE 9 

"A tenement house Is any house or building, or por- 
tion thereof, which is either rented, leased, let or hired 
out, to be occupied, in whole or in part, as the home or 
residence of three families or more, living independently 
of each other, and doing their cooking upon the premises, 
and includes all apartment houses and flat houses." 

" No room in any tenement house shall be so over- 
crowded that there shall be afforded less than four hun- 
dred cubic feet of air to each adult, and two hundred 
cubic feet of air to each child under twelve." 

" No wall-paper shall be placed upon a wall unless all 
wall-paper shall be first removed and said wall thor- 
oughly cleaned." 



CHAPTER II 
CARE OF THE STOVE 

The most important possession of the home is the 
stove, for without it we should freeze and starve. If 
we have only a little money, the first we spend is for 
a home, so the rent is the expense we think of as the 
most pressing. Next we have to get warmth and 
food; therefore, the stove is the most necessary object 
in our house. 

To understand your own stove will save you money ; 
you can waste a great deal of coal or gas simply by 
not knowing how to run a stove. You can waste more 
time and patience " fussing " over the fire than in 
any other way. You will waste good food-material 
if you don't know how to regulate the heat in the 
oven. 

Every housekeeper has her fire to care for : making 
it, feeding it, watching it. This work can be very 
dull or very interesting work. This lesson is to show 
every girl what an interesting part of her house the 
kitchen stove is. 

Before examining the stove, clean it thoroughly ^ 
remove the ashes over the oven-box, under the oven, 
and at the sides. Examine the picture in the book. 
Take the stove apart as far as is possible. 



CARE OF THE STOVE 



II 




Each furnace, range, or stove is somewhat different, 
yet the principle of all is the same. Each has a 
damper, draught, and check. Each must have an 
escape for coal gas, and each must heat some water 
continually to pre- i g 

tl 



vent the air from 

becoming too dry. 

In the case of a 

kitchen stove, this 

water is placed on 

the top of the stove 

in a bowl, which 

must be washed and 

refilled every morning. 

The damper is a flat plate which, when shut, closes 

the range where it connects with the chimney-flue. 

When the damper is open much of the heat goes up the 

chimney ; when it is closed the heat waves go over and 

around the oven. 
The damper is never 
entirely closed, as 
the coal gas must 
have an escape up 
the chimney. 

The draughts are 
doors or slides that 
come below the fire- 
box. When they are open a strong current of 

air passes up through the fire-box, making the fire 

burn better. When the draught is closed the fire burns 

more slowly. . 




12 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

The check is a sHde or small door above the fire- 
box. When open it retards, or makes a slow fire. 

In starting the fire, open damper and draughts, and 
close the check. 

When the fire is started, close the damper and save 
heat. 

For a hot oven, close the damper, open the draught, 
and see that the check is not open. 

For a slow fire, close draughts and damper, and open 
the check. 

As we learned in the furnishing-lesson, connected 
with a stove or near to it one must have a match-safe, 
a box for kindling, and a place for newspapers. A 
common packing-box divided into two parts will hold 
both wood and paper. One must also have an ash- 
can, a coal-scuttle, and a shovel; a stove-lifter, a shaker, 
a poker, and a rake for cleaning out soot from all air- 
spaces under the oven as well as over it; a blacking- 
dauber and brush, stove blacking, a whisk broom and 
an old glove to protect the hand. An oven-cloth 
should be near at hand to lift hot dishes with; a girl 
must never use her apron for this purpose. 

All these things must be very near the stove. One 
should never have to look about for anything required 
in managing a range. 

Making the Fire. 

First take out the ashes, seeing that clinkers and 
fine ashes are removed from every part of the stove. 
These prevent a free circulation of air and absorb the 
heat. Lay the fire lightly — first paper, then wood. 



•CARE OF THE STOVE 13 

then a very little coal ; remember that a packed fire 
will not burn. Before lighting the fire the dust should 
be brushed from every part of the stove, and the stove 
blackened. When lighting the fire have all draughts 
open, damper open, and check closed. Put very little, 
if any, coal on at first ; and more coal when the fire is 
started. When it is really going well, close the 
damper. The children, not the teacher, must do all 
the work. 

During the day it is better always to rake than to 
shake a fire. Never have the coal reach the lids of the 
stove, as this makes the lids crack. Never allow the 
stove to grow red-hot ; it warps the lids. To cool too 
hot a fire, open check or lift lids. 

Before blacking the stove, rub it off with a damp 
newspaper. The range should be blacked every morn- 
ing before the fire is lighted. Never black over dust. 
Throughout the day clean the stove with newspaper, if 
anything spills on it. If it is not thoroughly polished 
after blacking, the saucepans will become dirty. It is 
necessary, occasionally, to scrub the stove with soda 
water to remove old blacking. 

While the fire is starting we can learn something 
about the history of stoves, coal, wood, and matches. 
You are never going to forget that the amount of in- 
terest you get out of a subject is in exact proportion to 
the amount of study you put into that subject. In this 
book there are a few facts about Coal, Wood, and 
Matches. Let every girl in the class find something 
in relation to these commodities that is not stated in 
the book and bring this information to the teacher. 



14 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

Coal. 

The first coal that was taken from the ground in 
America was in 1750, in Richmond, Virginia. At the 
time of the American Revolution coal was first used 
as fuel. 

There are, in general, two kinds of coal: Anthra- 
cite, or hard coal; Bituminous, or soft coal. 

The principal deposits of anthracite coal are found 
in Pennsylvania. 

There are several kinds of anthracite coal: 

White Ash, $6.75 a ton in 1913 
Pink Ash, 7.00 a ton in 1913 
Red Ash, 8.50 a ton in 1913 

When coal is bought by the pailful it costs twice as 
much as when it is bought by the ton. It always saves 
money to buy coal in large quantities. 

Bituminous, or soft, coal costs $10.00 a ton. It 
burns more quickly than hard coal and makes a great 
deal of smoke in the burning. For this reason, in 
most cities, factories are forbidden to use soft coal. 
The engines on many railroads use soft, or bituminous, 
coal, — but nowadays less and less of it, because of the 
smoke and the fact that soft coal sends forth sparks 
which, as the train rushes through the country, set 
the woods on fire. 

Brickets are bricks made of coal-dust. They give 
a very hot fire but burn very quickly. 

Charcoal is charred wood. It is not cheap ; it gives 
a very hot fire but burns out quickly. It is used by 
plumbers, tinsmiths, and other artisans. It is also 



CARE OF THE STOVE 15 

used for cooking" purposes, but this is expensive on 
account of the rapidity with which it is consumed. 

Wood. 

It is much cheaper to buy kindhng-wood by the bag 
than in bundles. It is necessary to use but very Httle 
kindling to start a fire if it is laid correctly, that is, 
Hghtly on the paper — and the paper loose. Never 
stuff a whole newspaper in at the bottom of the fire- 
box. Also remember that a clean stove is a saving 
of wood and coal ; for only in a clean stove will a fire 
burn well. If there are ashes on top of the oven 
or clinkers in the fire-box, these will take the heat 
which we need for our cooking and heating purposes. 

Matches. 

Before matches were manufactured, flint and steel 
were struck together and the sparks fell among tinder 
or on paper and set it afire. Many attempts were 
made to use chemicals for the production of a fire, but 
it was not until 1827 that a druggist in England made 
a really practical match. He sold matches at the high 
price of 84 matches for 25 cents. In 1833, a man 
called Preschel, of Vienna, opened the first factory 
for making phosphorus matches. 

Find out all you can about the mining of coal, and 
how matches are manufactured. 

Write any facts you can find on these two subjects 
into a composition and bring it to your teacher. 



CHAPTER III 
COCOA AND HOW TO COOK IT 

The stove is so important that you cannot possibly 
learn all about it in one lesson. 

It will be necessary to begin all over again, and a 
second time make the kitchen fire; or, if you have a 
gas-stove, review the lesson about a kitchen-range. 
Going quickly over the points : 

How to clean a stove. 

How to lay a fire. 

When to open and when to close the damper. 

When to open and when to close the draught. 

When to open and when to close the check. . 

How can we save coal? 

How do we waste coal ? 

Now we do our first cooking, for it is of no use 
to know our stove unless we can use it. 

Cocoa. 

Cocoa is one of the simplest things to make and one 
of the most nourishing drinks; it takes the place of 
tea and cofifee, which no girl under fourteen years old 
should ever drink. Tea and coffee make her nervous 
and spoil her complexion; she cannot grow up to be 
strong and beautiful if she drinks stimulants, and tea 
and coffee are stimulants. 

i6 



COCOA AND HOW TO COOK IT 



17 



From to-day on, you will choose cocoa or milk in- 
stead of tea or coffee. There is a great deal of nour- 
ishment in cocoa, for it is made of 

Milk, 

Cocoa, 

Sugar. 

Milk. 

Milk has all the different kinds of building-material 



that your body needs. 
You would have to 
eat two eggs, or half 
a pound of potatoes 
or one pound of cab- 
bage, or nearly a 
quarter of a pound 
of round steak, to 
get as much strength 
as you can get from 
a cup of milk. 



WIXI(o)[Ll KlflLC^ 



Ash; 0.7 




Cocoa. 

Cocoa gives flavor and adds some protein. 

Sugar. 

Sugar is not only pleasing to the taste, but gives 
heat and force to the body while it is growing. That 
is why children, more than grown people, are eager 
for sugar. We call this the food-value of sugar; it 
is a carbohydrate, which yields energy. In four lumps 
of sugar we get as much energy as in a large potato. 



i8 



PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 



Just as we have learned that we can develop good 
or bad taste in the furnishing of a house, so we can 



GRANULATED 



Carbo- 
h yd rentes 

100.0 



form good and bad 
taste in foods. If 
you form the taste 
for tea and coffee it 
is hard to break it; 
but it is necessary to 
do so if you want to 
be a strong woman. 

Making Cocoa. 

Never begin to 
cook until every- 
thing you need is on 
the kitchen table. 
Cover the table with a paper. 

Collect materials, judging from the recipe what you 
will want. 

In the cooking of cocoa you will need : cocoa, sugar, 
milk, salt, saucepan, tablespoon, knife, cup for measur- 
ing, a double boiler (or two saucepans which can be 
made into a double boiler), an egg-beater, a utensil- 
plate. See that the kettle on the stove is filled and the 
water boiling. 

All recipes are in the back of the book. Cocoa, page 
129. 

After the cocoa is made and served, scrape, pile, and 
wash dishes. 




CHAPTER IV 
MILK-TOAST— RULES FOR DISHWASHING 

In the last chapter you learned how to prepare a 
kitchen table with the necessary cooking utensils, but 
the dishwashing was not thoroughly studied, because 
there was not time. 

We cannot wash dishes until we have used them; 
this gives a chance to try a new recipe at each lesson. 

Milk-Toast. 

Again you have that valuable food, Milk^ and a 
second valuable food, Bread. 

Bread 

is one of the most nutritious of our everyday foods : 
three-fifths solid nutriment, only two-fifths water. 
There is no animal food and there are few cooked 
vegetable foods of which this can be said. Most 
foods have a great deal of water. But you could not 
live on bread alone. You would have to eat four 
pounds of bread, or five ordinary five-cent loaves, to 
derive enough energy and protein to get through the 
day. Protein is that element in bread which builds 
up and repairs the body. The carbohydrates, or 
starch, are the fuel that give heat and energy, and 
make us want to work. If you have milk and butter 

19 



20 



PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 



with bread you do not need to eat as much bread, and 
your body will get the right things to make it grow, 



WEIOTIS ©IF^ia^© 



fat: 1.3 



to keep it in repair 
and warm, and to 
give you a feeling of 
energy. 

The recipe for 
milk-toast is on page 
130 of this book, 
and you know now 
how to cover the 

table and get out all needed materials before beginning 

to cook. 




Dishwashing. 

The piling, scraping, and rinsing of dishes is quite 
as important as the washing. Dishes that stand un- 
piled and unrinsed require more time and more effort. 

It is well to have the directions for dishwashing 
typewritten and tacked on the wall. 

To Pile Dishes for Washing. 

Scrape all bits of food from the dishes onto one 
plate — and empty this plate into garbage-pail, which 
should be lined with newspaper. Pile dishes in order 
of size, cups together, saucers together, plates to- 
gether, etc., silver by itself. Never set one glass in 
another. Soak all cooking-dishes. 

Soak all milk-dishes or dishes that have had dough 
in them in cold water. Soak egg-dishes in cold water. 
Soak all dishes that have had sugar in them in hot 



DISHWASHING 21 

water. Soak all cereal-dishes in cold water. Boil 
greasy dishes, putting in soda if necessary. 

To Wash Dishes. 

Use two dishpans, plenty of hot water, tray, dish- 
cloth, and towels. 

Always refill the kettle after taking water from it. 

Make wash water soapy with soap-shaker. The 
Jewish people use soda instead of soap. 

Take dishes from rinsing pan and set them on drain- 
ing-tray. 

Order of Washing Dishes. 

Cleanest first. 

Glasses, silver, teacups, saucers, rest of china, granite 
and tinware, pots and pTans. 

Kitchen knives and forks should always be scoured 
with Sapolio or with ashes to take off the spots. 

To Clean a Milk-Bottle. 

First. Soak the bottle in cold water. 
Second. Wash with other glassware in hot, soapy 
water. 

Third. Rinse with hot water. 

Pans and Kettles. 

Clean seams of pans with a match, stick, or wooden 
skewer. To clean kettles in which something has been 
burned, fill with water, add a small handful of soda, 
and boil — repeating this process if not entirely suc- 
cessful at first. 



22 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

Dry tinware near the stove, woodenware in the sun. 

Do not put the handles of knives or forks into water. 
Wipe them off with a wet cloth, and dry well ; soaking 
them in water loosens the handles. 

After dishes are washed and wiped, empty and rinse 
both pans, dry them, and hang them up ; wipe off tubs 
where dishes are washed. 

Kitchen Sink. 

Near the sink there always should be kept a sink 
brush, a sink shovel, a soap-dish and washing soap, a 
soap-shaker, a drinking-glass, a strainer, a jar of soda, 
and a jar of wood ashes for cleaning knives. 



CHAPTER V 

CREAM-TOAST WITH CHEESE— RULES 
FOR WASHING DISH-TOWELS 

Cream-Toast with Cheese. 

The recipe is in the back of the book, page 131. 

Milk, cheese, and bread contain all the food neces- 
sary for a meal. Milk and bread we have discussed 
in previous chapters. 

Cheese. 

Cheese is one of the substitutes for meat; that is, if 
you have no meat, cheese will give you the same 
strength. A pound of cheese has as much value as a 
gallon of milk, for cheese has all the protein and fat 
of milk, with most of the water taken out. 

Cook, and serve the cheese-toast. Pile dishes, as in 
last lesson. Now go more slowly and more carefully 
with the dishwashing; and we shall proceed to take 
up 

Washing Dish-Towels. 

Dish-towels must be washed every time they are 
used. If grease is allowed to dry on the towels they 
are hard to get clean. Dish-towels must be washed 
while still wet. 



24 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

Use towel-pan and plenty of hot water, small rub- 
bing board, and soap. 

Wash one piece at a time, the cleanest first. 

Rinse each piece in another basin; shake ont; hang 
on rack with edges even. 

Towels must be boiled at least once a week to keep 
them fresh and white. 



CHAPTER VI 

CEREALS 

Cereals. 

Cereals, or grains, are simply the seeds of certain 
grasses, that are used for food. Cereals contain 
woody fiber, and so must be cooked a long time. They 
also contain much starch and some protein (the part 
of food that builds up and repairs tissue). 

To know how to cook cereals is very important, be- 
cause there is more real nourishment for the money in 
cereals than in most other kinds of food. 

Time-Table for Cooking Cereals 

Amt. Water Salt Time 

Cereal Cups Cups tsp. min. 



Rolled Oats 




2/2 




40 


Oatmeal (coarse) 




3/2, 


1/2 


40 


Pettijohn's 




2 




40 


Cream of Wheat 




4 


1/2 


40 


Wheatena 




4 


1/2 


30 


Rice 




6 


2 


30 


H. O. 




2 


I 


30 


Hominy (fine) 




4 


^ I 


2 hrs. or 


Cornmeal 




4 


-] 


longer " 



Cereals can be divided into three classes : 
Raw cereals, such as old-fashioned oatmeal, corn- 
meal, etc. (These need long cooking.) 

25 



26 



PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 



Water: 12.0 
R-otein:8.0' 

Carboz-— -^ 
hydrates: 770 




Partially cooked, such as Cream of Wheat, H. O., 
Quaker Oats, etc. (These need less cooking.) 

Prepared cereals, such as Shredded Wheat, Force, 
etc. (These require no cooking.) 

'l^jJ^E The only differ- 

ence in the cooking 
of cereals is the 
-Fat- £0 ^^^o^'^^t of time re- 
quired in the boiling 
and the amount of 
water used. 

A k 1 fi '^^^ water should 
'be boiHng and salted 
when the cereal is added. Cook for five minutes di- 
rectly over the fire, and stir lightly with a fork until 
all is thoroughly mixed. Then cook in a double boiler 
or in a small saucepan placed over a larger saucepan, 
the larger one containing boiling water (.this to pre- 
vent the cereal from 
burning) . While 

cooking, stir occa- 
sionally from the p x.^ t q 
bottom with a fork. 

As the water un- 
derneath boils away, 
more should be 
added; also, if the 
cereal absorbs the 
water. 

For experience, cook two cereals, one in a double 
boiler, one in two saucepans. 



©AT 



Water: 11.0 
Protein: 11.8 




ea: 



69.2 



Ash: 3.0- 

water too rapidly add more 



CEREALS 



27 



Leave dishes used in preparation on the tubs for 
later washing. 

When the cereal is cooked, serve and eat with milk 
and sugar; but first fill the boiler and saucepans with 



'OTilEAT 



Water: 10.6- 
Protein: t2..2." 

Carbo- ^ 
hydrates: / 3.7 



.^at:l.T 



u 



-Ash: 1.8 



cold water to make 
the washing easier 
later. 

Every girl before 
she gets to this 
chapter understands 
perfectly how to 
make the fire ; how to 
prepare a kitchen- 
table for a cooking-lesson; how to wash dishes and 
dish-towels. There is more cleaning up after cooking 
than this. The kitchen-table must always be scrubbed. 
A kitchen-table can be a beautiful piece of furni- 
ture, but it needs daily care and always the right 

care. 

All bare wood, 

that is unpainted, un- 

Wdter:i0.j varnished, and un- 

Protein: 12.£. stained, is cleaned 

exactly as we shall 

hydrates:/3.9\^A5h:l.9 "^^^^ "^^ ^'^'''^^'" 



Fat: 1.5 



Carbo 




To Clean Table. 

Use basin of hot water, two muslin cloths, brush and 
Dutch Cleanser or Sapolio. (Never use soap; it 
makes a table yellow.) 



28 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

Wash one-half of table at a time, to leave a place 
for the cleaning-materials. 

First. Wipe it with cloth wrung out with hot 
water in basin. 

Second. Shake Dutch Cleanser on wet space and 
scrub with a brush — straight with the grain of the 
wood — as scrubbing round and round does not take 
the dirt out. 

Third. Wipe off with a wet cloth. 

Fourth. Wipe with dry cloth. 

After table is washed, put away Dutch Cleanser; 
empty, rinse, and dry pan ; hang it up ; rinse out brush 
and put it away, bristles down; wash out the cloths 
used in washing tables; wipe up floor if any water has 
been spilled. 

Cereal recipes on pages 131, and 132. 

Farina with Dates. 
Indian Pudding. 
Steamed Rice. 
Rice Pudding. 



CHAPTER VII 
BEDS AND BED-MAKING 

There is certain household work that we have to do 
every day of our Hves. In the last six chapters we 
have been studying about these daily tasks in the 
kitchen : care of stove, cooking, dishwashing and clean- 
ing-up which always follows the preparation of a 
meal. We keep this work from becoming dull and 
monotonous only by doing it so well that it becomes 
an art. 

Other daily duties that can never be omitted from 
any day are those connected with the bedroom. Just 
as surely as every man, woman, and child must spend 
a part of every twenty- four hours in bed, just so surely 
must the bed be aired and made daily. A girl's bed- 
room, in a way, represents the girl ; if it smells sweet, 
it is because the bad air is always being replaced by 
the fresh air coming in; if it is clean, dainty, and 
orderly, and not filled with a lot of dust-collecting 
things; we think at once that the girl who sleeps in 
that room is a neat, attractive girl with good taste. 
We have often seen bedrooms so pleasing that we long 
to know the girls who sleep in them and take care of 
them. 

29 



30 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

Beds. 

There are many kinds of beds. 

Brass beds are sanitary (that is, clean and heahhy), 
but they are expensive and hard to keep poHshed. 

Wooden beds are not sanitary, because bedbugs are 
apt to get into the cracks of the wood. 

Iron beds, painted, are inexpensive, easy to clean; 
and they do not attract bugs. 

It is more healthy to sleep in a single bed than in a 
double bed. 

Mattresses. 

The best kind of a mattress for a bed is made^ of 
hair, but this is the most expensive. Cotton mat- 
tresses are good and less expensive. Excelsior mat- 
tresses are often used, but they are hard. An excel- 
sior mattress will be found to be rnore comfortable if 
covered with a cotton pad (quite thick) or an old 
blanket. A feather mattress is bad ; it absorbs the 
moisture from the body, and it is not good for the 
back, as one should have the back as flat as possible 
during sleep. 

Turn the mattress every day, and let it air at least 
an hour, so placed that air can reach both sides. 

Pillows. 

Too high a pillow is bad for the back. If a girl is 
accustomed to a high pillow it will be hard to do with- 
out it all at once, but each night lower it a little until 
one low pillow only is used, or better still no pillow. 



BEDS AND BED-MAKING 31 

Sheets. 

Each bed must have two sheets. Sheets should be 
two and three-fourths yards long. This not only is 
long enough to tuck in well, but it also serves to pro- 
tect the mattress and blankets. Cheap sheets are sel- 
dom long enough. In buying sheets always insist 
upon having them measured. 

Blankets. 

Cotton and woolen blankets are better than com- 
forters, excepting in winter, when both are needed. 
The blankets wash ; they allow some air to get through, 
and they do not hold the moisture from the body as 
comforters do. Feather beds should not be used as 
covering. A comforter must never be used on a baby's 
bed — for a comforter cannot be washed. 

Pad. 

Cover the mattress with a pad to keep the mattress 
clean and to make the bed comfortable. 

Spread. 

Dimity is the best material for a spread because it 
washes easily and makes a bed look smooth and dainty. 

Bedmaking. 

Every morning the moment you are out of bed, 
throw the bedding over chairs and allow it to air for 
an hour, or while breakfast is being prepared and 
eaten. The following is the way we make a bed; the 



32 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

exact methods of the making are to be taught to the 
pupils by the teacher : 

First. Be sure the mattress is the other side up 
from what it was the night before ; thus they wear 
longer and don't become worn down in one place. 

Second. Have a pad or square of canton flannel 
over the mattress and under the lower sheet. 

Third. Have under sheet right side up, broad hem 
at the top. 

Fourth. Have second sheet wrong side up, broad 
hem at the top. 

Be sure that both sheets have middle crease exactly 
in the middle of the bed. 

Fifth. Put the blanket on the bed at least a quarter 
of a yard below top of the bed, and turn top sheet 
down to keep the blanket clean. 

Both sheets and blanket should be tucked in with 
square, hospital corners and should be pulled so tight 
that there is not a crease anywhere. 

Sixth. The spread should be put on, also with 
square corners, but the sides of the spread should not 
be tucked in. 

Seventh. The way a pillow is put on a bed can 
entirely spoil the looks of a bed ; but if the pillow 
is very clean and very smooth, and lies very square on 
the bed, it will add to the beauty. 

Eighth. If a comforter is used it is better to roll 
the comforter and put it at the foot of the bed than 
to make up the bed with the comforter under the 
spread, because you want your bed as square as a box. 



BEDS AND BED-MAKING 33 

and it is not possible to have square edges if you make 
the bed up with the comforter. 

In another chapter we shall learn how to clean the 
bed. You will not have time to clean your bed every 
morning, but you should clean it once a week. 



CHAPTER VIII 

MORNING SWEEPING AND DUSTING OF 
BEDROOM 

This chapter is still about the work that somebody 
in every household has to do every morning. Not 
only does the bed have to be aired and made, but the 
bedroom has to be put in order and left free from dust 
and attractive. Every room in the house should be 
treated likewise. 

Just as we wash our bodies, our face and hands, 
comb and arrange our hair, and dress ourselves as at- 
tractively as we can every morning, so we put the 
house in order and make our rooms fresh, sweet, and 
clean. 

In the last chapter you learned how to make the 
bed. Besides the bedmaking you must pick up and 
put into its own place every article that has got out 
of place. Soiled clothes must be put into the soiled- 
clothes barrel ; hang up any coats, dresses, or hats not 
in use; see that books are in the bookcase, and scrap- 
baskets emptied. 

Sweeping. 

Now sweep the floor. 

In sweeping use different sides and corners of the 
broom, so that it may wear evenly. 

34 



MORNING SWEEPING 35 

Before sweeping any room see that no uncovered 
food is in the room or anything that dust will in- 
jure. 

Sweep out the corners of the room first (a small 
brush for this is best). Sweep towards the center of 
the room ; sweep with short strokes, keeping the broom 
close to the floor so the dust won't fly about. 

Use a dustpan and brush to gather up the dirt that 
you have swept into a pile in the middle of the room. 

If you have a coal stove it is better to burn this dust, 
as it may contain disease germs. If you have a gas 
stove, put the dust in a paper and send it out with the 
ashes. 

Shake out the broom after using, or brush it out 
with a small brush. 

Dusting. 

Use cheesecloth dusters, because cheesecloth is soft. 

Never use a feather duster, as it only scatters the 
dust. 

With a dry duster wipe off the windows, mirrors, 
brass, china, and books. Then shake the duster out 
of the window and, after dampening it, wipe the other 
articles, dusting the shelf or table on which they stand. 

Woodwork should be wiped off with a damp cloth. 
This includes chairs, tables, desk, etc. ; — that is, any 
wood that is painted, varnished, or stained. For 
highly polished wood you must use a dry, woolen cloth ; 
a damp cloth leaves streaks. 

After the room is clean, hang up the broom. 

After wiping dustpan with soiled duster, put it away. 



36 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

Shake the duster out of the window, wash and 
hang in air to dry. 

Cheesecloth dusters should be washed, scalded, and 
dried (out-of-doors when possible) each time after 
using. 

Look about each room before leaving it and see that 
everything is clean, everything straight and in order, 
and nothing lying about that should be put away. 
The window shades at the windows should be evenly 
drawn. 

A room can be clean and yet out of order and un- 
attractive. 

No girl should expect her teacher to do any of the 
work, all the work is to be performed by the pupils. — 
A teacher's work is to direct and criticize. 



CHAPTER IX 
PERSONAL HYGIENE 

Hygiene is the science of health; and Personal Hy- 
giene has to do with those acts which we must or must 
not perform in order to keep our bodies in perfect con- 
dition. Sometimes, when you read or hear of the 
simple rules that are necessary for health, you will 
want to say, " I always do that," or " I never do 
that " ; but the most careful people in the world have 
to be reminded constantly of the everyday acts that 
affect health, and the girl is in danger who is too sure 
of her knowledge on this subject. 

In the first chapter we looked at the house to see 
if it conformed to all the rules of household hygiene. 
We examined each article of furniture to see if it was 
as perfectly adapted to its use as it could be. In this 
chapter we are to study the hygiene or health of the 
people who live in the house. A house consists of 
walls, ceilings, floors, and the furnishings. A home 
means the house and the people who live in it. 

The Skin. 

Every girl wants a clear skin. This is a mark of 
great beauty; the skin more than anything else is a 
sign of bodily health or disease. A smooth, clear skin 

27 



38 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

means that the tiny blood vessels are in good condi- 
tion; that the circulation is good; that the right nour- 
ishment is being supplied to the body and that diges- 
tion is normal. A dull, sallow skin, or pimples on the 
face, indicate that the blood or circulation is out of 
order. 

To keep the skin in perfect condition : 

First, Food. Eat the right food at meals and eat it 
slowly. 

Eat nothing between meals. 

Do not buy impure, uncovered food from push carts. 

Study what is the right food for a growing girl, and 
take pains to get it. 

Do not drink tea or coffee while you are getting your 
growth. 

Second, Air. Fresh air contains oxygen. We 
must breathe a great deal of oxygen into our lungs to 
make the skin clear and the cheeks red. 

Impure air is filled with the poisonous waste sub- 
stances breathed out. It contains the refuse from the 
lungs ; it is filled with dust and germs and is lacking in 
oxygen. 

It is just as bad to breathe impure air as to drink 
impure water. You would not think of bathing in the 
water another girl had bathed in, but you forget that 
it is as bad to breathe into your lungs the air which 
another has breathed out from hers. 

Bad air, or not enough air, affects digestion and cir- 
culation, and shows in the skin. The signs are: pim- 
ples, dullness of skin, and a puffy look, especially 
around the eyes. 



PERSONAL HYGIENE 39 

The rebuilding of the body is done largely at night, 
during sleep, and oxygen is a necessary part of this 
process of rebuilding. For this reason the window 
must be open in a bedroom at night to allow the fresh 
air to come in and the bad air to go out. 

Third, Sun. If possible, have your house face south 
or west, as these are the sunny exposures. 

Disease germs live best in dark places, away from 
the sun. A room with sun, therefore, is a more 
healthy room than one without. There have been 
cases of face eruptions traced to living in sunless 
rooms. If you cannot have sun in your room, you 
can have air, and then plan to be out in the sunlight 
as much as possible. 

Fourth, Exercise. Exercise is absolutely necessary 
for a good circulation ; and good circulation is neces- 
sary to carry off the waste matter of the body, other- 
wise this waste matter will clog and poison your sys- 
tems. Nothing will ruin the skin more quickly than 
this kind of poison. 

Choose walking, when possible, rather than riding 
in the subw^ay or a hot trolley-car. Remember you 
are aiding circulation in the one case and retarding it 
in the other. 

Fifth, The Morning Bath. The loose dirt which 
we accumulate from the outside is, perhaps, blacker, 
but it is not so dangerous as the dirt, consisting of 
waste matter and poisonous substances, which is given 
off through the skin, and which can be partially ab- 
sorbed again to poison the body if it is not removed 
every day. 



40 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

As a proof of how easy it is for substances to go in 
through the pores of the skin, if you rub a certain acid 
on to your skin that acid can be detected in your urine 
a few hours later. 

Perspiration and grease pass out through the pores 
of the body; if not washed or rubbed off, this hardens 
and clogs the pores ; it also gives off a disagreeable 
odor. 

Do not wash only, — rub the skin hard every day. 
This is good for the nerves. of the skin. This exer- 
cise makes them sound, healthy, and hardy. 

The good or bad treatment of the skin has an im- 
mediate effect on general health. 

Remember : 

We breathe through the skin as well as through our 
mouths. 

We feel through the skin. 

The skin must be clean so that nothing will obstruct 
it in throwing off obnoxious matter and in taking in 
oxygen. 

Because there is not a bath-room in the house, is no 
reason for not bathing. A good way to take a bath 
without a bath-room is this : 

Take two basins of water, one warm and one cold, 
have a wash cloth for each, soap and a towel. Stand 
in a third basin or tin tub. With the warm water and 
soap wash every part of your body. With the cold 
water rinse the body. Dry and rub hard with a coarse 
towel. Rinse out all basins, wash out cloths and put 
in sun to dry. Put towel where it will dry thoroughly 



PERSONAL HYGIENE 41 

— wash this towel out two or three times a week. 
Never allow any one else to use your wash-cloths or 
towel. 

Cosmetics. 

It is natural that every girl should want to make her 
skin as lovely as possible, but it is by air, sun, good 
circulation and good digestion that this beauty will 
come. Not by preparations and powders bought at 
the drug-store. These powders often contain lead, 
which makes ugly blackheads in the skin. Also, this 
lead poisoning may enter the body through the pores 
and affect the muscles and the digestion. Even if 
there is no lead in face-powders, they often contain in- 
gredients which in time make eruptions on the skin. 

Hands and Nails. 

Every girl should wash her hands just before cook- 
ing or before touching food. Also, wash the hands 
after going to the toilet, after arranging the hair or 
putting on shoes and stockings. To avoid chapped 
hands, dry thoroughly after washing, and at night rub 
with a pure cold cream. 

It is not enough to manicure the nails once in a 
while. Keep the nails moderately short and always 
have an orange-stick conveniently near the wash-basin, 
so that the nails may be cleaned each time the hands 
are washed. 

Hair. 

A very careful cook will always wear a cap when 
she is in the kitchen. This is to prevent any possi- 



42 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

bility of loose hairs getting into the food. Any per- 
son who takes any part in cooking will be sure that 
her hair is neat and held securely in place. No girl 
should ever comb her hair in the kitchen, or in the 
room where the family eats. Nor should she wash 
her hair at the kitchen sink. 

Once a week wash out the hair-brush and comb in 
hot water with a little ammonia in the water. The 
ammonia is needed to cut the grease which comes 
from the hair. Do not put the handle of the brush in 
the water. 

It is well for a girl to remember that every time 
she goes out of doors without a hat, the air blowing 
through her hair gives it strength and beauty. Sun, 
air, and brushing the hair once a day will keep it in 
such good condition that a wet shampoo is necessary 
only about once in two weeks. The best shampoo for 
a healthy scalp is hot soapsuds made of pure un- 
scented soap. Do not rub the soap directly on the 
head as this makes the hair sticky. Make soapsuds, 
wash the hair in these suds and then rinse four or five 
times in clear hot water. 

Teeth. 

There is not a girl who studies this book who does 
not know she should brush her teeth morning and 
night with a tooth-brush which no one excepting her- 
self ever uses, using tooth-powder when possible, and 
rinsing the mouth with fresh water after each brush- 
ing. But girls forget that much of the disease that 
people suffer from comes from unclean and decayed 



PERSONAL HYGIENE 43 

teeth. Bad teeth are breeding-places for bacteria and 
germs. These disease-germs get mixed with the food 
and then get into the stomach and intestines, where 
they often cause disease. If a girl could only realize 
this, she would never go to school without brushing 
her teeth hard, and never go to bed leaving particles 
of food in her mouth to cause this dangerous decay. 

Feet. 

A strong foot is a foot with the muscles in a healthy 
condition. The widest part of the foot is at the toes. 
Let any girl spread her foot out with her shoe off, and 
look at the foot and then at the shoe, and she will see 
that the shoe is often narrowest at the toe. When the 
foot is crowded into a pointed shoe the muscles are 
first hampered and finally rendered almost useless. 
The toes have had no freedom of action and the mus- 
cles no exercise. The foot loses its spring, becomes 
weak, and flat-foot is often the result The tempta- 
tion to buy pointed shoes is even greater, because these 
shoes are often the cheapest kind ; but it is money well 
spent when a girl buys square-toed shoes, even if she 
has to pay more. 

If a girl changes her stockings at least every other 
day in winter, and every day in warm weather, she will 
find that her feet keep warmer in winter and cooler in 
summer and grow less tired. It is very simple to wash 
out stockings. They do not need to be ironed, but 
dried well. 

Bathe the feet in hot water when tired, a little cook- 
ing soda in the water is a good thing. Wash the feet 



44 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

in cold water every morning. This will keep the mus- 
cles hard and the feet strong. 

When the feet are not in a good condition, a tired 
feeling, irritability, nervousness, and depression is the 
result. 

Eyes. 

For reading, studying, sewing, or any work that re- 
quires keen eyesight, daylight is better than gas or 
electric light, but every one must read or work some- 
times by artificial light. Whether you get your light 
from a window or from a gas-jet, the light should 
come from behind and above you. For writing, have 
it come over your left shoulder if possible. 

If a girl has to strain her eyes to see objects clearly, 
or has frequent headaches, or the eyes look red at the 
end of the day, she should go to an oculist at* once. 
Glasses in time often save the eyes for a lifetime. 



CHAPTER X 
SETTING THE BREAKFAST-TABLE 

Before setting the table for breakfast, always air 
the dining-room. Even if the weather is very cold, 
open the window wide for a few moments to let the 
bad air out and the fresh air in. If the weather per- 
mits, keep the windows open while breakfast is being 
cooked. 

If the dining-room is a room separate from kitchen, 
dust thoroughly before setting the table. When the 
kitchen is used for a breakfast-room, dust the table 
with clean damp cloth before setting. 

You now have a place free from dust and filled with 
fresh air ; in such a room food can stand uncovered on 
the table without danger of contamination. 

Setting the Table. 

In preference to tablecloths, use plain, but well- 
laundered, doilies with a bare table ; these are easily 
washed and ironed, and a spot on one does not mean 
that all must be washed. 

The first thing to set on the table is a centerpiece. 
On this have flowers, if possible, or fruit, or one of 
the dishes of food. 

The plates come next, set at even distances apart. 

Knives and spoons should be placed at the right, 
the sharp edge of the knife towards the plate. 

45 



46 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

Forks and napkins at the left. 

Glasses at the top of the knives^ three-quarters full 
of water. 

On the table must be pepper, salt, bread, butter, a 
pitcher of water, a small pitcher of milk, and sugar. 
What other things are to go onto the table depends 
upon what is to be served for breakfast. 

Place the chairs at the table the last thing. 

After the meal is over, take away the chairs first; 
then pile up the dishes neatly after taking them to the 
kitchen. Brush the crumbs from the table, put away 
the doilies in the place kept especially for table-linen, 
dropping the soiled ones in the wash. 

Brush up under the table. 

Unless the weather is very cold, leave the window 
open a little from the top. 

A very good breakfast for a family where there are 
children is : coffee for the father and mother ; milk for 
the children ; cereal with milk and sugar ; toast and 
butter for all. 

In the next chapter we shall learn how to prepare 
such a breakfast, but if in one lesson a girl learns how 
to set a table perfectly she has done a good piece of 
work. It means training the eye to see with exact- 
ness, so that the least unevenness in the placing of any 
object will be noticed immediately, as well as the train- 
ing of the memory to remember everything that is to 
be set on the table. 



CHAPTER XI 
PREPARING BREAKFAST 

This is to be a Breakfast of coffee for grown-up 
people; milk for children; Cream of Wheat with milk 
and sugar; toast with butter. 

The first thing to be done is to see that the fire is 
made by the method described in Chapter II. 

Then fill the kettle with fresh cold water, and put it 
on to boil. No matter what you are going to have to 
eat, the first important thing after the fire is made is 
to put a kettle of fresh water on to boil. 

In Chapter III we learned exactly how to cover the 
kitchen-table and to collect all food and utensils to be 
used in cooking before beginning to cook. 

For this breakfast we shall need on the working- 
table : 

Cream of Wheat, salt, double boiler, measuring-cup, 
tablespoon, teaspoon, utensil plate, coffee, coffee-pot, 
bread and knife. It is not necessary to set butter, 
sugar, and milk on this working-table. These can be 
put at once on the dining-table. 

Three recipes are to be used in this breakfast. All 
are in the back of the book : 

Coffee, Cereal, Toast. 

47 



48 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

Since it takes forty-five minutes to cook the Cream 
of Wheat, and only fifteen minutes to make the coffee, 
any girl knows, of course, that her first duty is to put 
the raw cereal into the boiling, salted water and let it 
be cooking while she does all the rest of the cooking. 

Now get the coffee started, and lastly make the 
toast. Very few girls know how to make good toast. 

In the last chapter you learned how to set the table. 
In this chapter you have learned how to cook a break- 
fast. In the next chapter you will fit the two to- 
gether. 



CHAPTER XII 
BREAKFAST COMPLETE 

The cereal we are to cook in this chapter is H. O., 
and we shall serve graham bread and butter instead 
of toast 

All the work referred to in this chapter will be re- 
view work, but there is one thing in knowing how to 
do several tasks separately while it is much more dif- 
ficult to make each duty fit in with all the other duties 
so that there is order and no confusion. 

If a girl was getting the breakfast herself she would, 
of course, first bathe and dress herself and leave the 
window open in her bedroom and the bedclothes airing. 
Then she would : 

First. Make the fire and put the kettle on to boil. 

Second. Air and dust the dining-room. 

Third. Get out all utensils and materials for cook- 
ing breakfast. 

Fourth. Start the cereal; place the coffee on the 
back of the stove to cook slowly. 

Fifth. Air and dust the dining-room; or if the 
meal is served and eaten in the kitchen, wipe off the 
table and air the room. 

Sixth. Set the table. 

Seventh. Cut the bread, and serve hot coffee, 
cereal, and bread and butter. 



50 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

Eighth. Clear dining-room table. Pile dishes for 
washing. Brush up under dining-room table and wipe 
table. Wash dishes and put them away. 

Ninth. Wash out the towels. Wash kitchen-table. 



CHAPTER XIII 



FOOD^VALUE 



When you hear people talking about food-value they 
mean how much benefit to your body there is in the 
food you eat. Every moment you are throwing off 
used-up particles of your body, and you must take in 
something that makes up for this waste. But beside 
just repairing the loss, you must eat enough to give 
you energy. No cell in the human body can live for 
one instant of time without fuel. Just as coal is fuel 
for a steam-engine, so are certain foods fuel for the 



human engine. 



IPAMMBIP 



Food. 

Food is anything you take 
into your body which repairs 
the waste or furnishes the 
body with new material, which 
makes heat and more energy. 
As you have learned, food to 
your body is what coal is to 
the stove. As soon as food 
enters your stomach it begins 
to digest or to be consumed, 
just as coal burns, and as the 

SI 




Water-. 
83.0 



'rotein : 1.6 
fat:0.5 

^rbo- 
hYdrates:13.5 



52 



PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 



value of coal is the amount of heat it gives out, so 
the value of the food is the amount of blood and 

muscle it makes. 
Every kind of food 
that you buy has 
been analyzed ; that 
is, chemists have 
found out what it is 
composed of, how 
much starch and fat 




Waten_876/ 
Protem: 1.6 

Carbo 
hydrates: 9.9 



Fat:0.3 
Ash: 0.6 



and what is called protein, and how much water. 
Some foods that you call food are made almost en- 
tirely of water: for example, see the pictures of vege- 
tables in this book. You see how large a part is 
water and how little solid food. 

It is found that one-half of the weight of what we 
eat is water, but even in addition to this each girl 
should drink at least three glasses of water a day. 

Water. 

Water is an aid to digestion ; it helps carry off waste 
matter and is as necessary for keeping the inside of 
our bodies in order as bathing is necessary to keep the 
outside of our bodies clean. 



Protein. 

Protein is that element in food which makes good, 
restores, the daily wear and tear of tissue. Without 
protein life is impossible, just as it would do no good 
to put coal into a broken stove or engine. Meat, eggs, 
and milk are the foods which contain the most pro- 



FOOD-VALUE 53 

tein; but often we cannot get meat or eggs, and so we 
must find foods which are substitutes for these; that 
is, foods which have in them this power of renewing 
the tissue in our body. Peas, beans, cereals are some 
of these substitutes. 

Carbohydrates Are Starch and Sugar. 

Starch and sugars make blood, and create energy ; 
nine-tenths of your food is carbohydrates. 

Fats. 

Fats, such as butter and oil and the fat parts of 
meats, make heat and keep you warm. The fat you 
eat is stored in your body as fat. 

The breakfast in the last chapter consisted of coffee, 
milk, cereal, bread and butter. 

Now let every girl consider whether the breakfast 
was a good breakfast or not. That is, did it make up 
for the waste matter she had thrown off through the 
night. In other words, did it have protein in it, and 
was there starch and sugar and fat enough to make 
heat and energy for the morning's work, and was this 
nourishment gained at a reasonable price? Carefully 
study each food served. 

Coffee. 

Coffee is not a food at all. It does not contribute 
anything to the body that the body needs through the 
day. Coffee makes girls nervous, cross and weak, so 
when you spend money for coffee you get no return 
in food-value. 



54 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

Milk. 

The reason little children can live on milk and noth- 
ing else is because in milk we find every kind of food : 
protein, starch, fat, sugar, and water. Milk is called 
a complete food because it contains, more than any 
other food in the world, everything the body needs. 

Cereals. 

Cereals are the fruit or seeds of grasses. In all 
grasses there is laid up in the seed a storehouse of 
nourishment for the young plant while it is growing. 
It is this nourishing seed we eat when we eat oatmeal, 
or Cream of Wheat, or any other cereal. There is in 
cereals about io% or 12% of protein, and the rest is 
starch, fat and water. As we eat milk and sugar with 
this cereal, any girl can see that she gets a great deal of 
food-value for the amount she pays ; from one to two 
cups of cereal will feed six persons and costs about 
nine cents, including the milk and sugar we eat with it. 

Bread. 

Bread is made from flour. Flour can be made of 
wheat, rye, oats, or barley, but as wheat is the most 
nutritious of the grains, wheat flour is the best from 
which to make bread. Bread is called the " staff of 
life " because it contains all the food elements the 
body needs, except fat. Bread contains wheat, milk, 
water, and sugar; also yeast, which makes it light and 
digestible. For a given sum one can obtain more 
food-value from bread than from any other food; 



FOOD-VALUE 



55 



but no one could live on bread alone, as a child can 
live on milk. 

Butter. 

Butter is almost entirely fat. We eat it to give 
heat to our bod}^ Fat is eaten a great deal more in 



Fat:85.0. 



cold countries than 
in warm ; and in cold 
weather we need 
more fat, because we 
need more heat, than 
in warm weather. 
Butter is an expen- 
sive fat. Oil and /^sfuJ^ 
lard and crisco give 
us the same heat at a smaller price. 
For 5 people our breakfast cost us 




Water:tJ.O 



Protein; to 



Coffee $ 

Milk, I y2 quarts, 

Cereal 

Bread 

Butter, Yz pound, ....'. 

Sugar 



04 
12 

03 
05 
06 
01 



$ -31 



or 6i cents a person and everything except the 

coffee contained exactly the food our body needed. 

After reading this chapter, examine the food charts 



56 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

that should hang on the walls of every Model Flat and 
see from each food what you get in 

Protein, 
Carbohydrates, 
Fat, 

Water, and 
Mineral Matter. 

The mineral element in food is needed to make bone 
and teeth, and to keep the blood in good condition. 



CHAPTER XIV 
PLUMBING LESSON 

We have to have city, or municipal, housekeeping as 
well as personal, home, housekeeping. Just as the 
work in a large hotel is divided into departments, the 
cooks being responsible for the kitchen work, the cham- 
bermaids being responsible for the bedmaking and the 
cleanliness of the rooms, so the work of our city is 
divided into departments. The Police Department is 
responsible for the order of the city. It is its duty to 
see that no man is disorderly or in any way interferes 
with the rights of any other man. The Street-Clean- 
ing Department is held responsible for the cleanliness 
of our streets. The Health Department works only 
to keep the people of the city from getting sick. And 
so we might mention many others, but these you will 
learn about in the chapter on Municipal Housekeeping. 
The department that has to do mainly with our hom.es 
is the Tenement-House Department. 

" A tenement house is any house or building which 
is either rented, leased, let or hired out to be occupied 
or is occupied in whole or in part as the home or resi- 
dence of three families or more, living independently 
of each other, and doing their cooking upon the prem- 
ises, and includes apartment houses, flat houses, and all 
other houses so occupied." 

57 



58 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

You will see, then, that the most beautiful apart- 
ment house on Fifth Avenue is a tenement house. Or, 
to put it more simply, a tenement house is any house 
where three or more families live, each family cooking 
for itself. 

The laws for tenement houses are made at the State 
capital by the Legislature, but the Tenement-House 
Department in each city sees that these laws are kept. 
There are over one hundred and fifty of these laws or 
rules for New York City tenement houses. In the 
first chapter, on furnishing, we read of the law re- 
ferring to wallpaper; in this chapter we are to study 
the laws which have to do with the plumbing in our 
houses. 

Plumbing is anything connected with piping, such 
as sinks, wash-tubs, bath-tubs, and water-closets. The 
laws relating to. these things every girl should know by 
heart. 

Laws of New York as Related to Plumbing. 

" In every tenement house there shall be in each apart- 
ment a proper sink with running water." 

" In every tenement house there shall be a separate 
water-closet in a separate compartment within each apart- 
ment provided that where there are apartments consist- 
ing of but one or twO rooms there shall be at least one 
water-closet for every three rooms. Every water-closet 
compartment hereafter placed in any tenement house 
shall be provided with proper means of lighting the same 
at night. If the fixtures for gas or electricity are not 
provided in said compartment, then the door of said 
compartment shall be provided with glass panels, or 



PLUMBING LESSON 59 

with glass transom, not less in area than four square 
feet." 

" In every tenement house all plumbing pipes shall be 
exposed." 

" In all old tenement houses the woodwork inclosing 
all water-closets shall be removed from the front of said 
water-closets, and the space underneath the seat shall be 
left open. The floor or other surface beneath and around 
the closet shall be maintained in good order and repair, 
and if of wood shall be kept well painted with light- 
colored paint." 

" In all old tenement houses the woodwork inclosing 
sinks located in the public halls or stairs shall be re- 
moved, and the space underneath said sinks shall be left 
open. The floors and wall surfaces beneath and around 
the sink shall be maintained in good order and repair, 
and if of wood shall be kept well painted with light- 
colored paint." 

" Every tenement house shall have water furnished in 
sufficient quantity at one or more places on each floor. 
The owner shall provide proper and suitable tanks, 
pumps, or other appliances to distribute an adequate sup- 
ply of water at each floor at all times of the year and 
during all hours of the day." 

Water-Seal. 

A trap, or water-seal, is a U-shaped bend in a pipe. 
It must always have in it sufficient water to extend an 
inch or more above the bend. This water is called 
the seal, and its use is to keep the sewer gas from com- 
ing into the room. All water-closets, sinks or tubs 
have these water-seals. 

(A bent glass tube can be bought at any drug-store. 



6o 



PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 



Pour into this glass tube dirty water and then pour in 
clean water, and you will see how the clean water 
forces the soiled water down and forms the clean seal 
which keeps the odors from coming up. ) 

The stationary 
equipment con- 
nected with the 
plumbing in most 
of our homes is 
the water-closet, 
bath-tub, wash- 
tubs and kitchen 
sink, and we 
even speak of the 
ice-box in connection with plumbing for, although the 
pipe in connection with the ice-box is not built into 
the house, there is a pipe which must be cleaned in the 
same way as all other pipes. 




A, B, common traps ; C, D, modifications of 
A and. B — screw-caps, as shown at a, being 
added for cleaning out the traps ; E, F, G, 
ventilating-traps with air-pipes at b leading to 
the exterior of a building. 



Kitchen Sink. 

First consider the kitchen sink and how it must be 
kept clean and h-ow the pipe under it must be kept free 
from grease. This sink has the U-shaped pipe under- 
neath, and as we have learned from the reading of the 
Tenement-House Laws there is no woodwork enclos- 
ing this pipe. The reason for this law is so that the 
space around the pipe can be kept clean. Also, in a 
dark, damp place vermin collect, but in a light, dry 
place, as is true in the case of open plumbing, there is 
not this danger. The kitchen sink and the in'side of 
the pipe connecting the sink with the sewer is kept free 



PLUMBING LESSON 6t 

from the accumulations of grease by the use of soda. 
Dish-water is apt to be greasy even if you are par- 
ticular in the scraping of your dishes. Liquid grease 
chills as it reaches the pipes and clings to the sides of 
the pipes; then other substances stick to these greasy 
sides; and if nothing is done, these substances rot and 
send vile odors into the house. It is not the plumber's 
nor the landlord's business to prevent this, but it is the 
business of the little housekeeper or the grown-up 
housekeeper who washes the dishes. A strong, hot 
solution of washing-soda will dissolve this grease. 
The kitchen sink should be washed out with this hot 
solution of soda at least once a day. 

To Clean the Sink. 

First brush all the bits of food and dirt from the 
sink with the sink brush and shovel, and put these 
scraps into the garbage-pail. Now place over the pipe- 
strainer a small rubber mat or a cup. Then put a 
handful of soda into the sink and pour in gradually a 
kettle of boiling-hot water, scrubbing the inside of the 
sink with the sink brush while the soda dissolves. Re- 
move rubber mat or cup, and allow the boiling soda- 
water to run down the pipe, pouring down this pipe 
more clean hot soda-water, and follow it with clear 
hot water, to remove all soda from the pipe. If soda 
is not washed down beyond the water-seal it is apt to 
eat holes in the pipe, and it will combine with the grease 
which may be washed down later, and this grease and 
soda make a soap which, if allowed to cool, will form a 
hard substance in the pipe. 



62 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

Another Way to Clean the Sink 

is to put a handful of washing-soda into the hot 
water kettle, let it come to a boil, pour this over every 
part of the sink and down the pipe, and then rinse the 
pipe well with plenty of clear hot water. Also, rinse 
well the hot-water kettle, wipe it dry and turn it up- 
side down until morning and in such a way that the 
air can enter the kettle. 



CHAPTER XV 
WATER-CLOSETS AND WASH-TUBS 

Water-Closet. 

Water-closets should be well-lighted and well-ven- 
tilated and should have floors that wash. 

Every girl, when she uses a toilet, must feel herself 
responsible for the person next to come. Each time 
the toilet is used it must be thoroughly flushed ; at least 
three or four gallons of water should go down the 
pipe. The water-closet may be cleaned thoroughly 
every morning, but in one hour it can be an unattrac- 
tive, unhealthy place if each person using it is not 
careful to flush it well, leaving the seat dry and clean, 
the toilet-paper neat, and no newspaper about. Let no 
girl hold the landlord or the housekeeper alone respon- 
sible if toilets are not in good condition, for the toilet 
in every house, or in every public hall, or in every 
public school, is every one's responsibility. 

To Clean Water-Closet, at Least Once a Week. 

For cleaning water-closet you will need a long-han- 
dled brush, which is used only for the toilet; a clean- 
ing cloth marked " T," so that no one in the house will 
be tempted to use it for any other purpose. Hot, 
soapy water and a kettleful of boiling hot soda-solu- 
tion. 

63 



64 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

With the hot soapsuds and the long-handled brush 
wash every part of the bowl, and all the hidden cracks 
and crevices. Then flush thoroughly, so that at least 
two or three gallons of water may flow into the pipes. 
Now, pour into the bowl the soda-solution, allowing it, 
as slowly as possible, to run down the pipes. Flush 
again thoroughly, and with the cloth wipe every part 
of the woodwork connected with the seat, being espe- 
cially careful to leave dry the hidden crevices, for it is 
in these damp hidden places the roaches collect, and 
from these places, if left damp, disagreeable odors 
come. 

This thorough cleaning of the toilet should be re- 
peated at least once a week, but every morning it 
should be cleaned with the long-handled brush, flushed 
well and wiped with the cloth. 

Wash-Tubs. 

Wash-tubs are for washing clothes, and not to be 
used as a store-place for soiled clothes. It is almost 
impossible to keep wash-tubs absolutely free from 
dampness, and allowing clothes to stay in a damp, air- 
tight place will surely cause them to become moldy. 
There is nothing dirtier, more unhealthy, or more 
untidy than using our wash-tubs as store-places. 

To Clean Wash-Tubs. 

After using the tubs to wash clothes in, wash them 
out thoroughly with soap and water, then wipe them 
out with a clean cloth. Be very careful to dry every- 
thing about the hinges of the cover of the tubs and all 



WATER-CLOSETS AND WASH-TUBS 65 

cracks and crevices. It is in these cracKs that damp- 
ness collects, and that cockroaches breed. After the 
tubs have been washed and dried, do not use them 
again until you are ready to wash more clothes. 

Bath-Tubs. 

Scrub out the bath-tub with soap and water every 
morning (not with sand-soaps of any kind, since they 
scratch). It must be insisted upon that each member 
of the family after bathing shall wipe out the bath-tub, 
but further the tub must be thoroughly scrubbed by 
the housekeeper as a part of the morning work. 

A tin tub can be brightened with Bon Ami Powder. 
This is not a sand-soap. The stains on a porcelain or 
tin tub can be removed with turpentine or kerosene. 

Bath-tubs should be cleaned with kerosene at least 
once a week, and then thoroughly scrubbed with soap 
and hot soda-water. 



CHAPTER XVI 

GARBAGE, REFUSE AND ASHES 

The Tenement-House Law relating to the disposi- 
tion of garbage, refuse, etc., is as follows : 

" Every tenement house and every part thereof shall be 
kept clean and free from any accumulation of dirt, filth, 
or garbage, or other matter in or on the same, or in the 
yards, courts, passages, areas, or alleys connected with 
or belonging to the same." 

" No person shall place or keep filth, urine, or fecal 
matter in any place in a tenement house other than that 
provided for the same." 

'^ The owner of every tenement house shall provide 
for building proper receptacles for ashes, rubbish, gar- 
bage, refuse, and other matter." 

In every apartment there must be three receptacles 
for the material that is to be thrown away: 

Can for Ashes, 
Can for Garbage, 
Basket for waste paper. 

Never allow anything to go into the garbage-pail 
but clean food-material, as dry as possible. 

66 



GARBAGE, REFUSE AND ASHES 67 

NEVER THROW ANYTHING FROM THE WINDOW. 

Care of Garbage-Can. 

A garbage-can should never be left open, 

It must be emptied every day. 

If newspaper always lines the can there will be no 
scraps of meat or vegetables to get into the cracks. 
It will, therefore, be very easy to wash out with boil- 
ing soda-water, using a stick with a cloth on the end, 
which should be kept for this purpose only. 

Cleaning Garbage-Can. 

Be sure all food is scraped from the can. Put in a 
handful of soda, pour in boiling water and wash 
around with the stick until all the soda is dissolved. 
Pour this dirty water down the toilet and rinse the can 
with clear hot water. 

When dry put in fresh newspaper. 

It is not necessary to clean the ash-can in this way. 
Ashes are clean as long as they do not fly about. 

Tie together papers before sending them out to the 
street to be taken by the wagon. 

What Becomes of the Refuse in New York? 

There are thirteen dumps on the North and East 
Rivers used by the Street-Cleaning Department for the 
disposition of ashes and rubbish. All receive ashes 
and rubbish ; only seven of the thirteen receive gar- 
bage. This is because the garbage is of less bulk than 
ashes and rubbish. With ashes are taken floor and 
street sweepings, broken glass, crockery, clam shells, 



68 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

tin cans. When we speak of rubbish we mean bottles^ 
paper, rags, mattresses, furniture, old clothes, old 
shoes, old carpets, etc. 

Ashes and Rubbish. 

The city is responsible for carting ashes and rubbish 
from houses to the various city dump-stations and 
emptying same into scows (which are big flat-bot- 
tomed boats). After this the city's ashes and rubbish 
belong to a contractor, who pays the city $500 a week 
for the privilege of looking over this refuse material 
and taking out anything of money value. Men hired 
for this purpose stand on the scow with long forks and 
pick out such material as is of commercial value. Thij 
contractor is obliged to return to milk-dealers in New 
York all milk-bottles, for which he is paid by the milk- 
dealers. The rags are sold to papermakers; tin cans 
are very valuable ; so are bits of copper and ticking 
from old mattresses. After each scow of rubbish is 
looked over it is leveled off and taken to the rubbish 
dump. 

Until five years ago all useless rubbish was taken 
out to the sea and dumped. This was stopped by the 
city, but they still go to sea in very cold, icy weather. 

There are red cards printed by the Street-Cleaning 
Department, which any one can have and hang in the 
window when she wishes ash-carts to call for rubbish. 
No householder is obliged to put rubbish on the street. 
The rubbish-cart men must come if you hang out a 
card. 



GARBAGE, REFUSE AND ASHES 69 

Ashes. 

Most of the ashes go to Riker's Island, which is op- 
posite 138th Street, East River. This island origi- 
nally had eighty-six acres ; it now has, in 1914, because 
of all the ashes dumped there, three hundred and 
twenty-five acres. The Street-Cleaning Department 
can make land on this island until it is fifteen feet 
above high-water mark. Then they must stop and go 
elsewhere; but as ashes are so soft that they constantly 
sink, land is slow in making. This land is not good 
enough to build on, but on account of the fertilizing 
value of the ashes, and the vegetable matter that gets 
mixed in with the ashes, it can be used for planting 
certain rank-growing things. 

Garbage in New York. 

All the garbage of New York is taken to one of the 
seven dumps and loaded onto scows. These scows are 
separate from the ash-scows. From the moment the 
garbage reaches the dump, the city has no more re- 
sponsibility for it. It is given to a contractor, who is 
paid 17 cents a ton to get rid of it. This contractor 
takes all garbage to Barren Island in Jamaica Bay. 

On Barren Island is a large garbage plant, consist- 
ing of huge boilers, presses, and highly-heated fur- 
naces. The garbage first runs down long narrow 
troughs, at the side of which little boys stand to pick 
out any pieces of glass, iron, or hard material which 
may injure the boilers. The garbage is then cooked 
for eight hours. At the end of that time it comes out 



70 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

a pulpy mass much the color and consistency of butter. 
Seventy per cent, of all city garbage is water, and be- 
fore the grease can be used this seventy per cent, of 
water must be boiled out. After cooking eight hours, 
the pulpy mass is put into large hydraulic presses and 
pressed down until still more of the moisture is 
squeezed out and still purer grease is left. It is then 
put into tanks where the water — what is still left of it 
— is separated from the grease by great heat, and the 
grease is drained into barrels. Most of this grease is 
sent to Belgium for the making of soap. We send it 
abroad because they have a process there of taking 
the glycerine out of the grease, and as this glycerine 
is very valuable it is more profitable to sell to the 
country where the glycerine can be extracted to the 
largest extent. At least one hundred and fifty barrels 
of grease are sent to Europe each day. 

After the grease has been extracted from the gar- 
bage the fibrous part is left. The object is to get this 
as dry as possible. This is done by the application of 
tremendous heat, but even this great heat cannot en- 
tirely extract the moisture. So the fiber is then put 
into great cylinders and naphtha is poured in, then 
pumped out again and again until the naphtha comes 
out perfectly white, which shows there is no more 
grease in the fiber. The fiber is used mostly for fer- 
tilizing the tobacco countries of the South. 

The hotels in New York will not send their garbage 
off in the city carts. Each hotel sells its garbage to 
private soap-makers. Each hotel receives three thou- 



GARBAGE, REFUSE AND ASHES 71 

sand dollars a year, or more, for this garbage. All 
the dead animals in New York belong to the Board 
of Health. These animals are very valuable for the 
making of fertilizer and grease. 



CHAPTER XVII 



POTATOES 



Protein: £.2. 



Fat: 0.1 




Carbohyd 

18A 



A potato is a root that grows under the ground. On 
its surface are what we call " eyes." If a potato is 
buried these eyes send out shoots. Now, an ordinary 
root does not have these eyes, or buds, so the potato 
F@TAT@ is really a thick un- 

derground stem. If 
you leave the potato 
in a dark, warm place, 
it will send out shoots 
exactly as it does un- 
/ater:78.3' derground. A potato 
is not good to eat 
after it has begun to sprout, because much of the nour- 
ishment has gone from the potato to feed the sprouts. 

It is now about three hundred years since the potato 
was introduced into this country. It was introduced 
into Europe in about the year 1 580 — that is, more 
than four hundred and thirty years ago ; but the people 
in Europe thought for a great many years that the 
potato was poisonous, and it was not until at a time 
when the crops were so bad that the people were al- 
most starving and were obliged to eat the potato, 
that they realized their mistake. Since that time it 
has become, more and more, a popular article of food. 

72 



POTATOES 73 

If you cut a potato across with a sharp knife, and 
look at the cut surface, you will find three distinct 
layers : 

First. A thin, outer skin. This outer skin contains 
a poisonous substance called solanine, but the poison 
in the skin is destroyed by cookings. It is because of 
this poison in the skin of the potato that the water in 
which it is boiled must not be used for anything else 
but must be thrown away. This is not true of the 
water that other vegetables are cooked in, for vege- 
table water as a rule is very useful as a foundation for 
soups. You will find that a good housekeeper always 
keeps vegetable water for soup-stock. 

Second. Next to the skin is a broad layer which 
discolors when it is exposed to the Hght. If we allow 
this discoloration to take place it gives the potato a 
very unpleasant taste. So, if you peel a potato and 
cannot at once boil it, see that it is kept in cold water 
until you are ready to put it into boiling water ; but do 
not let a potato soak in cold water unless it is abso- 
lutely necessary, because while it is soaking it will be 
losing some of the good mineral salts which are in 
the middle layer and which are a part of the food- 
value which we wish to get out of our potato. These 
minerals help to build up the tissues of our body. It 
has been found that we would die within a month if 
we did not get from our food these necessary minerals. 

Third. The flesh of the potato makes up the inner 
part. While the middle layer between the skin and the 
flesh gives us the mineral matter that we need, the 
center gives us the starch which is the chief food- value 



74 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

in the potato. Starch is what we found so abundant 
in cereals, but in cereals we also found a great deal of 
the protein which we have to eat to build up the tissue 
of our body, while starch gives us heat and energy ; and 
in the potato we get this heat and energy, but very 
little of the tissue-building material. Therefore, it is 
not a good diet to eat only potato. We must eat with 
the potato meat or eggs, or we must cook potatoes 
with a milk sauce. Then we get the needed protein 
from the meat, the eggs, and the milk, as well as the 
starch from the potato. 

More than 76% of every potato is water. This 
water is very necessary to our bodies, but it is not 
what we call food. You can, therefore, see that only 
22% of a potato is really food, and all the rest is 
water. 

How to Boil a Potato. 

It is better to boil a potato with the skin on and 
peel it afterwards, for as we have just learned the part 
of the potato just under the skin contains the minerals, 
which are very valuable, and if we peel a potato before 
boiling it we lose a great deal of this good mineral 
matter with the peeling. It is also true that when 
you peel a potato and then put it into water, some of 
this good tissue-building value is soaked out in the 
water. 

Wash your potato, using a small vegetable brush to 
scrub it with. Take out any black spots with the point 
of a knife. Boil with the skin on, peeling off a narrow 
strip in order to prevent the potato from bursting. 



POTATOES 75 

Put the potato at once into boiling water. Only very- 
old potatoes are improved by being pared and soaked 
in cold water before boiling; this is done to restore 
the moisture that the potato has lost from being ex- 
posed to the air and from thus drying for so long a 
time. Potatoes must be boiled until soft in the middle. 
In boiling potatoes let the water boil gently. When the 
water boils too hard the outside of the potato gets very 
soft before the center is done. Do not let a boiled 
potato stand in the boiling water after it is cooked, be- 
cause it will absorb the water and become very soggy. 

Baked Potato. 

When you bake a potato it is the water in the potato 
that gets hot and softens the starch. This water 
changes to steam, and the starchy part is left dried and 
mealy. If you allow a baked potato to lie in the warm 
oven after it is thoroughly cooked, the steam will turn 
back to water and the starch of the potato reabsorbs 
the water and the potato gets soggy. For baked po- 
tatoes have a quick oven, for if your oven is slow the 
potato becomes dry and hard. 

In the section of this book headed " Recipes " many 
ways are mentioned of cooking potatoes, but every girl 
who knows how- to boil a potato correctly, how to bake 
a potato correctly, and how to make white sauce, can 
easily learn all the different ways of preparing potatoes. 

Methods of Making White Sauce. 

Measure flour, salt, pepper, and butter in upper part 
of double boiler. Melt and cook together, over slow 



y6 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

fire, three minutes. Take from fire, add milk slowly, 
stirring constantly to prevent lumping. Put back over 
upper part of double boiler and cook until it thickens. 

If you have not a double boiler, rub flour and butter 
together with a spoon in a small saucepan. Add milk, 
and stir steadily over a moderate heat until the sauce 
boils. Add salt and pepper. 

No girl should consider that she has finished the 
potato lesson until she knows exactly how to bake 
potatoes and boil potatoes; knows also the recipe and 
method of preparing: 

Mashed Potato. 

Riced Potato. 

Creamed Potato, 

Fried Potato. 

(Recipes found on pages 133 and 134.) 

Fried potatoes are the least digestible, and not good 
for children. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

CLEANING THE KITCHEN— CLOSETS AND 
KITCHEN UTENSILS 

In giving the kitchen a thorough cleaning (which 
must be done at least once a week) always clean out 
the closets first. The reason for this every girl can 
see. You do not want the dirt from the closet to be 
swept into a clean kitchen. 

Cleaning Closets. 

Take things from one shelf at a time, dusting each 
article and placing it on the table, which you have first 
covered with newspapers. Do not mix articles from 
the different shelves ; it makes confusion later. 

To clean closets you will need the same utensils as 
were necessary for cleaning the kitchen-table : a basin 
of hot water, two muslin cloths, small scrubbing brush, 
and Dutch Cleanser or Sapolio. 

First. Dust off shelves with damp cloth. 

Second. Scatter on Dutch Cleanser and scrub with 
brush and hot water (with the grain of the wood). 

Third. Wipe off Cleanser with clean cloth, and 
then thoroughly dry. 

Mold and a bad odor are the result of returning 
things to a closet and shutting it up before it is thor- 
oughly dried. 

77 



78 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

Should the closet smell musty, wash it with hot soda- 
water, after scrubbing the shelves. 

If ants or cockroaches are found in your closets: 
First, clean shelves as you have just been told, then use 
insect-powder in all the cracks ; later, sweep away the 
powder and dead ants, and fill cracks with borax. 
But you must be very careful not to have the powder 
touch any of the food. 

While your closet is drying is a good time to wash 
out empty jars in hot soda-water; also, wash and air 
the bread-box. You remember you learned in the 
chapter on furnishing that glass jars are considered 
to be the best receptacles in which to keep food; be- 
cause you can see the contents without opening the top 
and looking in : you can see when a certain grocery 
needs replenishing. The jars are tight; no air, in- 
sects, or dust can get in, and any one can tell when they 
need washing. 

Cleaning the Bread-box. 

Each week the bread-box should be emptied, and all 
crumbs removed; then wash it with hot water and 
soda; thoroughly rinse it with clean hot water, and dry 
and air (in the sun if possible). 

The closet for pots and pans ; closet for dish-towels, 
cleaning-cloths and aprons ; drawers for knives, forks, 
etc., all are cleaned in the same way as the food-closet; 
but where the work in the home is very heavy you will 
not be able to clean each closet every week, but surely 
once a month every closet must be thoroughly cleaned, 



CLEANING THE KITCHEN 79 

and any closet that holds food should be cleaned once a 
week. 



Tinware. 

When you take the pots and pans out of the closet 
and dust each one you will often find rust. Rust 
comes from dampness, so if you find a tin pan rusty 
in the cracks you can be sure it was not thoroughly 
dried near the stove, or the closet is damp. 

Bon Ami or whiting are good for brightening tin- 
ware. But when tin covers of saucepans are dulled by 
the steam it is not possible to make them as bright as 
new. 

Ironware. 

Kerosene and ashes will remove rust from iron- 
ware. Take an old cloth (that you can throw away 
afterwards) and rub the iron utensil with the ashes 
and kerosene. Then wash in strong, hot soda-water 
and rinse in clear hot water. Dry on the stove. 

If iron is very rusty, cover it with some sort of 
grease (mutton fat is good), sprinkle with lime, and 
let it stand over night. Wash next morning in hot 
soda-water and dry thoroughly. A very rusty sink 
may be cleaned in this way, but be very careful of 
your hands as lime hurts the skin. 

Woodenware. 

Wood holds odors unless very carefully cared for. 
Wood needs sun and air to dry it. The stove heat is 



8o PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

bad for wooden utensils. Therefore, any girl fur- 
nishing her own house would buy as few wooden uten- 
sils as possible. 

Agateware. 

Agate- and enamelware are very good, but they 
crack and break if not washed and dried properly. A 
half-dried agate kettle put on a stove to dry is apt to 
crack. If an agate-lined teakettle is allowed to boil 
dry, the lining will crack and break off". Careful soak- 
ing to prevent the necessity of scraping these utensils 
helps greatly to preserve them. Never use a knife; 
use paper to wipe out the worst dirt. Wipe off any 
utensil blackened by the stove with a piece of paper 
before washing it. 

Kitchen Linen. 

For a family of five the following number of cloths 
and towels are enough to keep the house absolutely 
clean : 

Twelve dish-towels. 

Three dusters. 

One broom-bag. 

One polishing-cloth. 

Three dishcloths. 

Twelve cleaning-cloths (these can be made from old 
underclothes ) . 

Two oven-cloths. 

Two floor-cloths. 

A small bag in which to keep old pieces of cloth that 



CLEANING THE KITCHEN 8i 

can be used for very dirty work and then thrown away 
is almost a necessity to a good housekeeper. 

There must be a shelf or a drawer in your kitchen 
where you keep all things needed for ironing, such as 
wax, sandpaper, ironstand, holders, blueing, and old 
cloth for testing iron. 

Each one of these shelves or closets must be kept 
clean by the same method. 

First. By taking from closet and dusting every 
article. 

Second. By wiping of¥ all dust with damp cloth. 

Third. By scrubbing with Dutch Cleanser and hot 
water. 

Fourth. By rinsing, wiping, and drying thoroughly. 
Always return in perfect order all articles which you 
have taken from the closet. A closet may be per- 
fectly clean and yet not orderly or attractive. 



CHAPTER XIX 

CLEANING THE KITCHEN— ICE-BOX AND 
WINDOW-BOX 

The ice-box and window-shelf are both used for the 
same purpose, that is, to keep perishable food cold. In 
winter you can save money by using the outdoor shelf 
instead of the ice-box. The cold outdoor air is free 
while ice is very expensive. 

Window-Shelf. 

In making a window-shelf be sure that it has a 
slanting roof to allow rain and snow to run off, that it 
has holes bored in the back to admit cold air and at 
least a half-inch opening between the shelf itself and 
the upright back to allow the dust to be swept out and 
to prevent the possibility of food lodging in the crack. 
An enamel-cloth curtain in front is necessary if you 
would have the contents hidden, and a clean white cur- 
tain looks attractive from the room. 

The Tenement-House Law says : 

" No person shall at any time place any incumbrance of 
any kind before or upon any fire-escape." 

Under no condition break this law, and it is every 
girl's business to see that no one in her family is 
allowed to keep food on the fire-escape and thus break 
this city law. 

83 



CLEANING THE KITCHEN 83 

To Clean Window-Box. 

Take everything from the shelf. Put them on a 
newspaper in some suitable place. Brush and wipe off 
the top of the box. Wipe out the inside with a damp 
cloth, using a pointed stick or skewer to dig out any 
scraps of food that may have got Into the cracks. 
The least particle of food allowed to spoil in the win- 
dow-box gives a bad odor to the fresh food. Now, 
scrub with hot water and soda. Do not wash the 
enamel curtain with soda-water, as the soda makes the 
enamel-cloth crack. Soap and, water are the best for 
enamel-cloth. 

The window-box must be perfectly dry before you 
return the contents. Water-soaked wood gives a bad 
odor to food. 

To Clean the Ice-Box. 

Be sure that the drain-pipe of the ice-box is in no 
way connected with other household plumbing; sewer 
gas will be admitted to the ice-box if it is. 

A pan for water is commonly found under the ice- 
box. This must be emptied when necessary, and 
cleaned twice a week, at the same time the ice-box is 
cleaned. Clean every day in hot weather. 

In cleaning the ice-box remove all food and ice, and 
wash the inside of the box with hot suds; rinse with 
hot soda-water, and again with clear hot water. Take 
special care, in scrubbing off racks and shelves that no 
particles of food are left in the grooves. Use a skewer 
to dig out the corners. Draw an old cloth through the 
drain-pipe with the help of a wire; some dirt always 



84 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

lodges there. Dry the ice-box and air it for an hour. 
Wash in hot soda-water the pan under the ice-box. 

Care of Leftover and Perishable Food. 

Cover every kind of food that you put on the win- 
dow-shelf. Milk must always be kept in a tightly 
covered bottle ; the air sours the milk. 

Butter should always be covered, as butter absorbs 
odors. If you put a melon, for example, in the ice- 
box with uncovered butter, the smell of the melon will 
be taken up by the butter and the taste of the butter 
spoilt. To keep milk over night without ice, scald it, 
cool, and then cover tightly. 

Cooked meat will keep better than fresh meat. 

Bread and cake do not need to be kept in a very cold 
place. They keep best in covered tins or earthen jars. 

Olive oil is injured by freezing. Do not keep it in 
the ice-box. 

Do not waste the space of an ice-box or window-box 
by keeping there food which is not perishable. Re- 
serve these cold places for perishable food, such as 
milk, eggs, butter, and leftover cooked food. Never 
put hot food in the ice-box. 



CHAPTER XX 

THOROUGH CLEANING OF KITCHEN 

In previous chapters we have learned exactly how to 
clean all kitchen closets and how to care for kitchen 
utensils. The main body of the kitchen must be thor- 
oughly cleaned once a week, even if you do not have 
time as often as that to clean all the closets. Never 
forget that your kitchen must always be clean, always 
attractive. Since so much of your life is connected 
with the kitchen, and so largely does your health de- 
pend upon the cleanliness of this one room, no effort 
is wasted that 3^ou spend in beautifying it. 

To Clean Kitchen. 

First, dust and take from the room everything that 
can be moved. Do the stove cleaning next, as this 
is the dirtiest work. Then sweep the floor; cover a 
broom with a cloth and wipe the walls ; and last, wipe 
all woodwork with a woolen cloth. Sweep the floor a 
second time. The unpainted and unvarnished wood- 
work and shelves must now be thoroughly cleaned, as 
you learned in Chapter XVIII. 

To Clean Painted Woodwork. 

Dust the woodwork with a cloth after the walls are 
dusted. Wash with warm water (not hot) and soap. 

85 



86 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

Soda and Sapolio remove paint, and should not be 
used. A brush is also necessary to take dust from 
grooves, and two cloths — one for washing and one 
for drying. Add a few drops of Sulpho-Naphthol or 
other disinfectant to the cleaning water. 

While the shelves and woodwork are drying, wash 
the windows. 

To Wash Windows. 

Use a pan of hot water, a duster, two cleaning cloths 
and a dish of Bon Ami. Place them on a newspaper 
near the window. Bon Ami is but one of many things 
used for washing windows. 

First Method. Dust the window, and apply a thick 
suds of Bon Ami. Let it dry, and rub off with a dry 
cloth. Rinse the dusting-cloth in the water and wipe 
off the woodwork around the windowpanes. News- 
paper is very good for polishing windows. 

Besides a weekly cleaning, windows should be dusted 
every day. 

A little alcohol added to the water in the winter pre- 
vents its freezing. 

Second Method. To clean windows, add a few 
drops of kerosene and ammonia to a pan of hot water. 
Use a duster, two cleaning cloths, and a newspaper. 

Dust the windows, wash, dry, and polish. 

Last, wash the floor. This is also new work, but 
similar to scrubbing the table. 

For cleaning the floor have a pail of hot water, a 
floor-brush, floor-cloth, and soap. Soda may be used, 
or Gold Dust 



THOROUGH CLEANING OF KITCHEN 87 

The condition of the floor must decide which clean- 
ing agent to use. A very greasy floor needs soda. 

First, sweep the floor ; then, wash a small space at a 
time and wipe off with a wet cloth; scrub with soap, 
following the grain of the wood ; rinse and dry with a 
cloth wrung out in the scrubbing pail. Change the 
scrubbing water very often. 

Return furniture to the kitchen when the floor is 
dry. 



CHAPTER XXI 

APPLES 

For three chapters you have scrubbed and cleaned 
the kitchen. It is only natural that you should want 
to use this clean room and prepare something to eat. 

In our talks on foods we have not considered fruits. 



Fruit. 

The fruit is of no real use to the plant. Fruit is 
meant by nature as a bait to attract birds and insects, 

and so the seed is 
set free, carried 



EDIBLE PORTION 



Wate 



Carbohydrates; 
2^0, 




about and scattered. 
There is not much 
nourishment in fruit. 
We eat it more for 
the sake of the 
sweetness than for 
any food-value it 
has. It is good for 
the blood. 

From eighty to 
ninety per cent, of 
fresh fruit is water. As you see in the picture of the 
apple, more than three-quarters of it is water, and 



APPLES 



89 



most of the remaining part sugar. This is not true of 
nuts, which we will study later. Nuts have very little 
water and much protein and fat. 



Apples. 

Cooking makes 
most fruits more 
digestible, but raw 
fruit has more food- 
value. However, as 
we have just found 
out, we do not gain 
much strength and 



EDIBLE PORTION 



Water: 77. 4- 




Protein:1.3 
Ash: 0.5 



Car bo- 
hydrates: 19. 2, 



energy from fruit ; and so, especially for little children 
and invalids, fruit should be made digestible by cook- 
ing. 

Be sure, when you cook fruit, to preserve all the 
juice; you will lose the best part of the fruit if you 

allow this to be lost. 

Apples can be 

canned, preserved, 

Water, 84.6 ^^^^ 

\ Protein: 0-4 



gpiBLE PORTION 




Fat: 0.5 



Carb-ohydratest 1 4. 1 ^Ash: 03 

prepared by baking them or stewing them 



used in pies and pud- 
dings, and made into 
jelly. This you will 
do next year, but 
apples can be most 
simply and digestibly 



Baked Apples. 

For baking, select smooth, sound apples, wash them, 
and take out the core with an apple corer. Fruits 



90 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

should be cooked in graniteware or earthenware. Use, 
in the cooking, a wooden or silver spoon. Fruit con- 
tains acids, and so it must not be cooked in a tin or 
an iron dish. Place washed, cored apples in a baking- 
dish. Put one tablespoon of brown sugar into each 
cavity. Sprinkle with nutmeg, cinnamon, or squeeze a 
little lemon- juice into each apple. Cover bottom of 
baking-dish with boiling water, about one-half cup of 
water for each apple. Bake in hot oven until soft, 
frequently taking a spoon and pouring over the apples 
the syrup that is forming in the pan. To know 
whether your apples are done or not, pierce with a 
fork. Serve hot or cold with milk. 

It does not take long to prepare apples for baking, 
and while they are baking is a good time to review the 
table-setting lesson. It is a great mistake for a girl 
or the teacher to think that because a pupil has ac- 
complished a task once, she knows it. Each task in 
any art, especially the art of homemaking, must be 
done over and over again. We must form the habit of 
always doing each act exactly right. 

For stewed apples and apple sauce see pages 132, 
133- 



CHAPTER XXII 

CLEANING A BEDROOM CLOSET— CLEAN- 
ING A BED 

In Chapters VII and VIII you learned how to air 
and make the bed every morning, and how to dust and 
do the regular morning work. But once a week the 
bedroom must be thoroughly cleaned. 

Clothes-Closet. 

Never hang up in the closet any article of clothing 
which you have just been wearing without first shak- 
ing and airing it. At night, when your window is 
open, or in the morning when your room and bed are 
airing, always open wide the door of the closet; let 
the cold outdoor air blow through your clothes. 

Every girl, I am sure, has noticed the close odor 
that sometimes meets her when she opens the door of 
a bedroom-closet. This odor need never be there, if 
every day you brush the dust out of your outer gar- 
ments, shake your clothes, air them before hanging 
them up, and daily air the closet. 

You learned in Chapter XVIII that in cleaning a 
kitchen thoroughly all closets and drawers must be 
cleaned first. This is equally true when you have a 
bedroom to clean, 

91 



92 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

Cleaning Closet. 

Take all clothes from the closet, giving each gar- 
ment an extra shake as you take it out. Brush all 
loose dust and dirt from the walls and floor. Then 
wipe with a damp cloth walls and floor, being careful to 
wipe out all cracks and crevices. At least once a month 
scrub the floor. Return all clothes when closet is thor- 
oughly dry, and shut the door tight. 

Cleaning the Bed. 

As a preventive of bedbugs, take all clothes from the 
bed and shake well ; throwing them loosely over a chair. 
Wipe the mattress with a cloth wrung out in water and 
sulpho-naphthol, being especially careful to wipe in the 
tufted places. Put the mattress over chairs. Wipe 
the iron part of the bed with soap and water, and then 
with kerosene. Wipe off the springs with kerosene. 
Allow the bed to dry thoroughly before returning mat- 
tress and bedclothes. 

If bugs get into the bedstead, first wash it with soap 
and water, then with a solution of carbolic acid, or a 
preparation which you can buy at the drug-store ; and 
repeat this until every trace of bugs is gone. Bedbugs 
hide chiefly in cracks, in castors, and under the tufting 
of the mattress. 



CHAPTER XXIII 
WEEKLY BEDROOM CLEANING 

After closets and bed are cleaned, as in the last 
chapter, you are ready to give the entire room a thor- 
ough cleaning. 

Dust all movable things, including small pictures, 
and set them in another room. Take curtains down, 
if possible; if not, pin them up. (Curtains should 
never come below the window-sill.) Sweep and take 
out any rugs you may have. 

After dusting each piece of furniture that is too 
heavy to move, cover it with old sheets kept for the 
purpose. Sweep floor with windows closed. Now, 
open windows and brush walls with a covered broom. 
Sweep again with a damp cloth on the broom. Allow 
dust to settle. Then clean the woodwork, as taught in 
Chapter XX, also wash windows. Uncover the furni- 
ture. If there is a stained or waxed floor, oil or wax 
it the last thing. 

Do not forget to dust the gas-fixtures. Never try 
to clean them with polish. It is not satisfactory, and 
hard rubbing will loosen them. 

Wipe off the mirrors. Wash the glass of all the 
pictures before rehanging them. If curtains have been 
taken down, shake them well — out of doors if possible. 

93 



94 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

All brass and nickel should be cleaned before return- 
ing it to the room, if it is not already polished. ( Some 
housekeepers have a regular day for polishing their 
brass, silver, and nickel, not the general cleaning day. ) 

The cleaning of brass, silver, and nickel will be 
taught in the next chapter. 

After a room has been cleaned, see that it looks 
orderly. A room may be clean and yet not attractive. 
See that the shades are even, the chairs straight, the 
blotter clean, ink-well clean and filled, plants watered 
and dead leaves taken off. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

CLEANING BRASS, SILVER, AND NICKEL 

Dampness tarnishes brass and nickel ; gas, food, and 
dampness tarnish silver ; and acid eats into silver. 

To Clean Brass. 

For cleaning brass it is necessary to use some sub- 
stance to remove the dirt, tarnish, and corrosion, and 
also a dry polish to give a higher luster. First collect 
the necessary implements: 

A newspaper to protect the table 

An old tray upon which to set the article to be 
cleaned 

Wet polish, or brass paste 

Dry polish (Whiting or silver powder is good) 

A cheesecloth for dusting 

Three pieces of old cloth (that you can throw away) 

A polish cloth (tissue paper, or newspaper, may be 
substituted for this cloth) 

Never use good cloths of any kind for hard clean- 
ing; it wears them full of holes. 

Method. 

Dust the brass. Apply wet polish with an old piece 
of cloth, rubbing very hard. This cloth becomes very 
dirty and has to be thrown away. 

95 



96 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

Use a piece of match-stick under cloth to remove 
dirt from cracks and grooves. 

Wipe off the wet poHsh, which loosens the dirt, with 
a second piece of cloth. With a third, apply the dry- 
white polish. Rub with polishing-cloth. 

Brass will keep bright twice as long if treated with 
a final dry polish. 

To Clean Silver. 

Collect newspaper, old tray, silver polish, saucer, 
alcohol or water, duster, and two pieces of old cloth. 

Method. 

Dust the silver. 

Mix some silver polish and alcohol in a saucer. Rub 
this on each piece of silver and lay each aside on a piece 
of newspaper to dry. When thoroughly dry, polish 
off with another cloth. A soft brush is necessary to 
remove the polish from grooves or designs. 

Wash the silver in hot water before returning it to 
the drawer. 

To Clean Nickel. 

Nickel may be cleaned in the same way as silver. 
Wash all cloths that can be used again. 



CHAPTER XXV 

TABLE ETIQUETTE— AFTERNOON TEA 

The attitude of a girl at meals can make or spoil 
that meal for the entire family. 

Each member of the family should cultivate a habit 
of appreciation ; that is, don't be faultfinding, but take 
the food that is on the table and eat it with apparent 
pleasure. There are girls who always come to the 
table in a faultfinding mood, seeming to take pleasure 
in saying that they " hate " this or that dish, forgetting 
that some one has worked hard to prepare it. A bad 
temper or an unhappy mood while eating is bad for the 
stomach and often produces indigestion. Talking 
pleasantly and eating slowly, while at meals, aid diges- 
tion. 

When a meal is ready, go at once to the table. If 
you are late, the food gets cold and you have spoiled 
the pleasure of the cook, as well as annoyed the family 
and ruined the taste of your own meal. A meal is a 
family gathering. No one must think of herself alone, 
but of what will give the entire group the most pleasure. 

Do not be over-anxious as to what is on your plate. 
Keep your eyes open. Notice when some one wants 
his plate replenished or his water glass refilled, or is in 
need of butter, salt, pepper, or such things. A little 

97 



98 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

girl should never allow her mother to wait on her ; she 
should be the one to rise and wait on those older than 
herself. 

Some people have what we call a servant. That 
does not mean that the work of preparing meals is a 
work for w^hich a lady is too fine and so hires a person 
less refined to do it for her. It means only that in a 
home there are a great many important things to do, 
especially in homes where children are to be cared for. 
If the mother, or head of the house, has enough money 
she pays some one to come in and do a part of the 
housework in order that she may be free to do more 
thoroughly her duties in the home. This is the very 
same way in which business is carried on in an office 
or a store. One man cannot keep the books, run the 
errands, sell the goods, and attend the telephone ; and 
so he takes others into his service, or engages " serv- 
ants," to help him. A man does not look down upon 
these associates in business, he knows they are exactly 
as good as he is and their work is as important. 

A good housekeeper will plan to save the strength 
and time of her servant as though it were her own. A 
good woman will have the same sympathy with, and 
will exercise the same courtesy toward those in her 
service as she feels for her own family, A sensible 
woman will not scold the servant because she is some- 
times slow. No one works equally fast at all times. 
If a dish is broken, the head of the house will say to 
herself, " We all are liable to drop things." If the 
servant has her own way of doing things, the good 



TABLE ETIQUETTE 99 

housekeeper will let her follow it; for she knows that 
there are other ways than hers, — and good ones too. 
Remember the servant is as human as you are; she 
gets tired as you do; she likes to play; she is often 
lonely. While she is in your house you and your 
family are responsible for seeing to it that she has good 
food, does not hurt herself by working too hard, and 
lives happily in your home. If a servant can clean 
your house better than you can do your work (even if 
your work is teaching a public-school class), she is a 
smarter woman than you are. 

Serving Tea. 

The girl who serves should have clean hands and 
neat hair, and wear a white apron. 

This is a ceremony of hospitality, and always 
should be performed with such a spirit of happiness 
that each member of the family and every guest will 
feel welcomed to the house. 

Tea. 

There is something in tea that is called tannin. It 
is this ingredient that is bad for our stomachs. Tan- 
nin is especially poisonous to little children. The 
longer tea stands after the boiling water has been 
poured over it the more of this tannin is dissolved out 
of the tea leaves into the water which we drink. If 
you wish to have as little tannin as possible in tea, 
serve your tea within five minutes after pouring on the 
boiling water. 



loo PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

Method of Making Tea. 

Never use water that has boiled before or has been 
standing in the teakettle. Draw fresh cold water and 
let it boil for the first time. Water that has boiled 
before and stood on the stove tastes flat because the 
air has gone out of it. 

The amount of tea to be used depends upon the kind 
of tea used. The sa3ang goes " a teaspoon for each 
cup and one for the pot," but this is too much tea; 
usually two teaspoons for four or five persons is 
enough. 

Warm the tea-pot by rinsing it with hot water. Put 
tea into the warm tea-pot and pour in boiling water. 
Let it stand five minutes and serve. (Never give tea 
to children; it is a drink for grown-up people.) If 
you wish to use the tea later pour off all liquid from 
the tea-leaves and heat this liquid when desired. You 
will, thereby, avoid drawing the poisonous tannic acid 
from the tea-leaves. 

Many things can be served with tea : bread and 
butter, crackers, toast, or cake. 

Bread and Butter. 

Have the butter soft. Butter the bread before cut- 
ting from loaf; cut thin; place two slices together as 
in a sandwich; cut these sandwiches in similar shapes 
and sizes, — uneven pieces of bread are unattractive. 

Toast. 

Ordinary American bread is improved in flavor and 
digestibility when it is toasted. Soggy bread hurts the 
stomach and is bad for the health. 



TABLE ETIQUETTE loi 

To toast bread is one of the ways of making use of 
stale bread. 

To Make Toast. 

Cut stale bread in one- fourth inch slices. Put slices 
on wire toaster; lock toaster and place over clear fire, 
at first holding it some distance from the fire. Turn 
often enough to keep the two sides equally brown. 
Hold it nearer the fire after the bread is well dried on 
the outside, and the color an even golden brown. 

To toast over a gas range, use an asbestos wire-mat, 
allowing mat to get well heated before putting bread 
on it ; or toast in the oven turning the bread frequently. 

Tea-Tray. 

On a tea-tray there should be a clean white tray- 
cloth, cups and saucers, teaspoons, tea-strainer, nap- 
kins, sliced lemon or milk, sugar, bread and butter 
sandwiches, toast or crackers, and lastly the freshly 
made tea. 



CHAPTER XXVI 
. ODORS 

Odors are danger signals. A bad odor means " look 
out; there is trouble somewhere." 

If you smell gas, at once you look for the leak, know- 
ing that fumes of gas cause death. 

If you smell that dry, disagreeable odor which is the 
sure sign that agate- or tinware is burning, you in- 
stinctively rush to fill the kettle or saucepan. The 
water has boiled away; the smell is the warning 
which in this case often comes too late to save the ket- 
tle. 

Every girl has noticed as she has entered a bedroom 
where the windows have been closed all night a stale 
smell. It may be she has not realized that this is a 
warning that the oxygen in the air has been exhausted 
and poisoned air is left. Had one window been opened 
top and bottom no odor would have been apparent in 
the room. Oxygen, or fresh air, has no odor. 

Every girl has had the experience of trying to avoid 
the offensive breath of a friend, — has had days when 
she herself was conscious that her own breath was not 
sweet. This is nature's danger signal. The breath is 
practically without odor in health. It is often the 
ordinary habits of a girl's life that are the cause of an 

IP2 



ODORS 103 

unhealthy condition that the bad breath is but the sign 
of. A girl may have been eating candy between meals, 
or eating too fast while at meals, or forgetting to drink 
water, and indigestion has been the result. A coated 
tongue, a nasty taste in the mouth ; these she can hide. 
The breath that comes from a bad stomach no girl can 
hide from others. 

Or, possibly the trouble is that the waste matter from 
the system has not been carried off. In the rush of 
getting to school on time a girl often neglects the most 
important morning duty. Constipation is the result. 
A clogged system, then a poisoned system. Every 
one tries to avoid the breath of the girl in this condi- 
tion. 

Decaying teeth throw out such a signal of danger 
that it would seem impossible that a girl with the odor 
of decay in her mouth should not hurry at once to a 
dentist, and after her teeth had been filled always brush 
them morning and night. 

The close odor that is sometimes called the human 
odor is very noticeable in crowded places ; for example, 
the subway in the rush hours. And it is even at times 
associated with an individual. This odor is like a loud 
voice crying. The body has not been bathed recently. 
The clothes have not been changed often enough, or the 
clothes and the closet in which the clothes have hung 
have not been aired. Dainty odors, or no odors at all, 
make a girl more attractive than any manner of dress 
or any kind of beauty. A bad odor is repellent to 
every one. 

It would be interesting, while on this subject, for the 



I04 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

girls of each class to think of other odors connected 
with the house or with the human body that are dis- 
agreeable and give the remedy for each. There is 
almost always a remedy. 



CHAPTER XXVII 

BATHING SICK PERSON IN BED AND 
CHANGING THE SHEETS 

If a girl's mother or any one in the family is very 
sick, of course the care of this patient could not be 
entrusted to a little girl; but there are often times in 
the home when some member of the family is obliged 
to stay in bed ; with a bad cold, for example. Staying 
in bed may mean breaking up the cold more quickly 
and preventing the rest of the family from catching it. 
In a case like this a small girl often can play the part 
of nurse. 

The great thing is to keep the patient comfortable 
and clean. Have nice fresh air in the room, and see 
that the room is attractive. 

In this chapter you are going to learn how to give a 
bed bath and how to change the sheets, for a fresh 
sheet on the bed is very refreshing to a sick person. 

First prepare everything that you will need for the 
bath, and place all the utensils on a chair or table 
near the bed, because when a girl once begins to give 
her sick mother or any member of the family a bath 
she must not leave her to run to the kitchen for water 
or cloth or soap. For this bath you will need a basin 
of warm water, soap, one or two bath towels, alcohol, 

105 



io6 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

and wash cloth of gauze (do not use a handkerchief). 
The bath should be given before the sheets are 
changed. 

First, take the spread off the bed, folding it neatly, 
and put it out of the way. Make your patient com- 
fortable on the pillow before beginning the bath. Sick 
people are often irritable and easily made uncomfort- 
able. We should do all in our power to make the 
morning bath a pleasure, and not something to be 
dreaded. 

Have plenty of hot water near at hand. It is well 
to have an extra pitcher of hot water and a jar in 
which to empty the water in the basin when it becomes 
too cold or needs replenishing. Make the water a 
little soapy by shaking the soap in it. This is better 
than rubbing the soap directly on the face. 

First wash face and ears, paying particular attention 
to the ears. The back of the ears often gets very 
dirty, and the creases do, too. This is true, especially, 
of little children. Remember to be very gentle when 
you are playing the part of nurse, as it is trying to 
the patient to have her ears washed. Do not expect 
the patience in a sick person that you do in a girl who 
is well. After washing the face and ears, rinse out 
the cloth, wipe the face off again and then dry face 
and ears carefully. 

Next, take off the nightgown, shake it out carefully 
and hang it over a chair. If the weather is cold have 
the chair near the stove. Now, lift one arm from 
under the bedclothes and lay it on the turkish towel, 
which you have placed over the clothes to protect 



BATHING SICK PERSON IN BED 107 

them. Rub plenty of soap on the cloth, and rub the 
arm well, particularly under the arm. Rinse out the 
cloth, wipe the arm once more, and dry thoroughly. 
If the patient is not very sick, rub with a good brisk 
stroke. Before washing the hand it is well to trim 
the finger-nails, if they need it. Put the patient's hand 
over the basin, wash it thoroughly with soap and 
water. Clean the finger-nails with an orange-stick 
when the hand is thoroughly dry. Now wash the 
other arm and hand in the same way. 

It is very refreshing to any one who is obliged to 
stay in bed to have the arm and hand rubbed with 
alcohol after it is thoroughly clean. Never use wood 
alcohol, but 50%-pure alcohol gives a cool refreshed 
feeling. 

No matter what part of the body you are washing, 
remember you must always keep the patient covered, 
excepting the part which is being washed. 

Now, throw back the clothes to the waist line. 
Wash the body to the waist with the soapy cloth, rinse 
and dry with the turkish towel, as you did the arm, 
and if possible rub the body with the alcohol. Next, 
turn the patient on her face and wash the back in the 
same way. 

The turning of a very sick patient is quite a difficult 
matter because often one is so sick that she cannot 
turn herself ; but the girls who are reading this chapter 
are too young to take care of a very sick person, so 
we will take it for granted that all you have to do is 
to ask your mother, or the member of the family to 
whom you are giving the bath, to turn over so that 



io8 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

you can wash her back. Always use a turkish towel 
under the arm, or under the body, to protect the bed. 

Next, draw the bedclothes up around the throat of 
your patient so as to keep her thoroughly warm. 
Loosen the bedclothes at the foot of the bed. Take 
out first one leg, place under it the turkish towel and 
be sure that all the rest of the patient is well covered. 
Wash the leg well with soap and water, wipe it of¥ with 
fresh water, dry the leg with a brisk stroke, and if 
possible rub with alcohol. Cover that leg; take out 
the other and wash and dry it in the same manner. 

Now you have bathed the face, the arms, the body 
and the legs of your patient; but you have not as 
yet washed the feet. When one is sick in bed, her 
feet get tired and hot, and need careful bathing. Ask 
your patient to bend her knees so that the feet are 
resting flat on the bed. Put the towel under the feet 
and place a basin on the towel and the feet in the basin. 
Now, wash the feet well with soap and water, dry 
thoroughly, and after drying cut the toe-nails. Do 
not be in too much of a hurry when you wash the 
feet. It is a good thing to let them soak for a few 
minutes in the hot water. 

Now the bath is finished. It is not the place of the 
little girl who is giving the bath to collect the basin, 
the towels, the cloth, and soap and take them away, be- 
cause she does not want to leave her patient until the 
bed is made and the patient comfortable. So she 
should call some member of the family to take all these 
utensils out of her way. 



BATHING SICK PERSON IN BED 109 

Combing the Hair. 

The next task in order is to comb your patient's hair. 
Put a towel (fresh if necessary) under her head. Part 
the hair from front to back with the comb. Comb 
first one side and then the other. Always begin at the 
end of the hair and work up, taking a small part of it 
at a time. If tangled, twist it around your finger to 
relieve the pull on the scalp. A good nurse will never 
pull her patient's hair ; that might start a headache that 
would last all day. 

After combing one side, braid the hair on that side ; 
then braid the other in the same way. Have the 
braids go quite near the ears so that the back of the 
head may be left free and your patient may not be 
obliged to lie on a twist of hair. 

Wash your hands after combing the hair. 

Teeth. 

If not too sick, your patient will want to brush her 
teeth. Nothing is more refreshing in illness. Any 
fever or any trouble with the stomach at once gives a 
nasty taste in the mouth. Cleansing does much to re- 
lieve this. Put a towel in front of your patient, cover- 
ing the bedclothes carefully. On this put a basin, 
hand the patient a glass of fresh water and her tooth- 
brush — tooth-powder, too, if she has it. 

Now make a mouth-wash with half a glass of fresh 
water and a half teaspoonful of salt. Before tak- 
ing the basin away let her rinse her mouth with 
this. 



no PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

Changing the Sheets. 

First, take out top sheet from under the blanket and 
place it one side to use as a draw-sheet later. Now 
take the pillow very gently from under the patient's 
head; move her onto one side of the bed, roll the 
sheet under and draw it up next to the patient. The 
clean sheet is then laid on so that the fold in the 
sheet comes midway in the bed. Tuck in this clean 
sheet on one side and make it smooth as far as the 
middle of the bed. Roll the remaining half of the 
clean sheet up tight against the patient beside the 
soiled sheet. Now for the top sheet, which you took 
from bed, — fold for draw-sheet and tuck it into side 
with the clean sheet; roll this also and lay it next to 
patient. 

Turn the patient to other side, over the roll of 
sheets. Pull out and throw to one side the soiled 
sheet and soiled draw-sheet. Go to the other side of 
the bed, pull sheet tight and tuck in with square 
corners. At the same time pull draw-sheet as tight as 
possible and tuck in with sheet. Be very careful that 
there are no wrinkles under the patient. The draw- 
sheet is used with a sick person to protect the under 
sheet. 

The pillow is now put under the patient's head. 
Lift her, with one arm under her shoulders, and slip 
the pillow in with the other hand. 

Pull the pillow down so it will be a little way under 
each shoulder. Always ask your patient whether the 
pillow is comfortable. Place the clean top sheet over 
the blanket. Pull the blanket from under, having your 



BATHING SICK PERSON IN BED iii 

patient hold the sheet at the top. The blanket is then 
placed over the top sheet, and sheet and blanket are 
tucked in at the bottom of the bed. 

Put on the spread to protect the blanket and to make 
the bed look attractive. 

No little girl could do this work at first without 
the help of the teacher. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 
THE INVALID'S TRAY 

In the last chapter you learned how to bathe a pa- 
tient and how to change the sheets on her bed. In 
this chapter you are still going to take the part of 
nurse. Play that it is your little sister who is sick. 
She has been made comfortable for the day. She has 
a clean, cool body ; the sheets on her bed are fresh ; and 
the room has been aired and dusted. Now she is 
ready for something to eat, and it is the duty of the 
little nurse to get the breakfast. 

This meal must be daintily served, the dishes attrac- 
tive, the linen spotless; and when hot food is used the 
dishes must be hot. 

The appetite has a great effect on digestion, and sick 
people are very apt to have poor appetites, and so it 
is the part of the nurse to do everything in her power 
to stimulate, that is to arouse, the appetite. An at- 
tractive room, a flower on the breakfast tray, a happy, 
cheerful nurse in a very clean apron, all these do much 
toward making the patient willing to eat. If the tray- 
cloth is a little soiled, if the tea has slopped into the 
saucer, if the outside of the water glass is wet, if the 
nurse's finger-nails are dirty, the patient may lose her 
pleasure in the breakfast. 



THE INVALID'S TRAY 113 

There are six things the girls who read this chapter 
must try to remember in preparing an invalid's tray : 

1. Have it look attractive. 

2. Have everything taste just right. 

3. Be sure everything on it is easy to digest. 
(When you are working or playing you can eat more 
solid food than you can when you are lying still in 
bed.) 

4. Be sure everything is the kind of food that will 
give the patient strength. She wants to get well and 
strong as soon as possible, and every mouthful of food 
must help her toward health. 

5. Let no time elapse between the cooking and 
serving. 

6. Never ask your patient what she wants to eat, 
never talk about the food where she can hear you. 
Surprise her, if possible. This surprise helps the 
appetite, and adds interest to the dullness of a long 
sick-day. 

The tray on which you serve the meal must be large 
enough to hold all the dishes without any appearance 
of crowding. If, for example, you are serving only 
milk and toast, use a small tray ; but three or four hot 
dishes will require a large one. 

Cover tray with a tray-cloth. This does not need 
to be expensive, but it must be spotlessly white. If 
you have not a tray-cloth use a perfectly clean napkin. 

Choose the best china you have ; also the silver and 
glassware must be the best in the house. 

In setting the tray follow the same rules as you did 
in table-setting. Place the plate where it can be con- 



114 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

veniently used; knife at the right; sharp edge toward 
the plate; the spoon at the right of the knife; the fork 
at the left of the plate. A bread and butter plate 
should be placed above the fork. The napkin must be 
placed at the left of the fork. Cup and saucer at the 
right — with the handle so that your patient can- reach 
it easily. Water glass over the knife, not full enough 
to spill as you carry the tray. Be sure that there is 
salt and pepper on the tray, sugar if required, and a 
small pitcher for cream, or milk, if needed. Now the 
tray is ready for the hot dishes of food as soon as 
they are cooked. Food must be served at once after 
it is cooked so as to be the more tempting to your 
patient. It spoils cooked food to be left standing. 

What will you cook for your sister, whom we will 
suppose to be in bed with a bad cold ? 

Nothing fried. Fried food is not as healthy as 
boiled or steamed or baked food. 

One good breakfast is : 
Orange, or baked apple 
Dropped Egg on Toast according to recipe 

on page 134. 
Hot cocoa 

A cooked apple is more easily digested than a raw 
one, so you will bake your apple and serve it with 
milk and sugar; but if you have an orange this is, 
when served cold, often more acceptable than hot 
fruit, especially in warm weather. The flavor of this 
fruit will help give your patient an appetite for the 
more nutritive part of her breakfast. Fruits also aid 
digestion. You have read before in this book that 



THE INVALID'S TRAY 115 

fruit is largely composed of water, and contains but 
little nutritive value, the little it has being mostly 
sugar. But there are minerals in fruit that the blood 
needs very much, and so you will begin this breakfast 
with fruit. 

Eggs have a great deal of protein and repair the 
waste of the body as meat does. There is so much 
food-value in eggs that even if they are expensive you 
will try to buy one or two fresh ones for your pa- 
tient's breakfast. Try to give the sick person the 
best, even if the healthy members of the family have 
to deny themselves. To determine whether an egg 
is fresh or not, put it in a cup of water, it will sink 
if fresh and rise to the top if not. The reasons you 
give eggs to sick people are many: 

1. They have a great deal of food-value; 

2. They taste good and are easy to eat ; 

3. They are easily digested when raw or soft cooked ; 

4. They are free from bacteria. 

But while eggs have a great deal of protein and fat, 
they have not much carbohydrate, that property that 
gives energy. So eggs are not a food you can serve 
all alone, any more than you serve meat with nothing 
else. Eight eggs are equal to one pound of meat, 
but you wouldn't feel like working or playing even if 
you ate one pound of meat or eight eggs, that would 
be too much for the system to take care of. If you 
serve your egg on toast you will give your patient 
the added food-value of the bread. You studied about 
bread in Chapter IV, and bread, you remember, has a 
great deal of carbohydrate. 



ii6 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

Cocoa we learned how to make in Chapter III, and 
how much strength was in the milk. 

First prepare the fruit and put it on the tray. If 
it is an orange have it cold on a cold plate. 

Then make cocoa ; when the cocoa is hot, make the 
toast and poach the egg according to recipe. Have 
the cup for cocoa, and the plate for egg, hot. Hot 
dishes must be used for hot things, cold dishes for cold 
things. Serve all as daintily as possible, being careful 
not to spill anything in carrying the tray from the 
kitchen to the sick-room. 



CHAPTER XXIX 

FRESH VEGETABLES 

Most vegetables contain only a small amount of 
nutritive value. The exceptions are peas, beans, and 
lentils. But although you may not get energy out 
of the other vegetables, you get what the body needs 
in other ways. As you see by the pictures there is a 
great deal of water in vegetables ; also there is mineral 
matter. The water is needed for the kidneys, the 
mineral acids to purify the blood; and the bones need 
these minerals as well. Our intestines need a certain 
amount of bulk in order that the proper action shall 
take place. Vegetables do much to give this required 
bulk. 

In choosing vegetables in summer, be very careful 
to select fresh ones. Summer vegetables should be 
cooked as soon after gathering as possible. Vege- 
tables purchased from push-carts must be carefully 
examined to see if they are fresh, and very carefully 
washed before cooking. If the peas or beans you buy 
seem old, it is better to make them into soup than to 
serve them as vegetables. The subject of vegetables 
is a big subject, for there are dried and canned vege- 
tables to consider as well as fresh ones. 

Next year you will learn the great nutritive value 

117 



ii8 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

of dried peas and beans, and how to cook them. You 
will also learn to can vegetables to use in winter when 
fresh vegetables are dear. And what vegetables are 
'good for sick people and what ones are the best for 
children. 

But in this chapter you can only begin the study of 
vegetables, by learning about fresh summer vegetables. 
These all give the body minerals and water and neces- 
sary bulk; and peas, beans, and lentils give a great 
deal of nourishment. 

All vegetables are cooked in boiling salted water. 
Some of the common summer vegetables are 

Time for Cooking 

Lima beans i to i^ hours 

String beans i to 3 hours 

Beets, young 45 minutes 

Beets, old 3 to 4 hours 

Cabbage 35 to 60 minutes 

Cauliflower 20 to 25 minutes 

Celery Used raw 

Corn 20 minutes 

Lettuce Used raw 

Onions 45 to 60 minutes 

Spinach 25 to 30 minutes 

Tomatoes Cooked or raw 

Peas 20 to 60 minutes 

A small scrubbing-brush, which may be bought for 
five cents, with the word " vegetable " marked on the 
back, and a small pointed vegetable-knife are a neces- 
sary part of every kitchen equipment. 



FRESH VEGETABLES 119 

To Cook String Beans. 

Wash the beans in cold water, string, cut into one- 
inch lengths. Put beans in fresh boiling water, and 
add salt the last half-hour of boiling. 

The time for cooking any vegetable varies, some 
vegetables being fresher and younger than others. 
These take less time than the older vegetables. So 
each girl must test her beans to see when they are 
soft enough to eat. The cooking will take from one 
to three hours. When soft, drain and season with 
butter and salt. These beans contain a great deal of 
nutritive value, and can be eaten instead of meat. 

To Cook Peas. 

Peas contain a great deal of proteid, too, and when 
young are easy to digest. 

Take peas from pods, cover them with cold water 
and let them stand one-half hour. Skim off peas that 
rise to the top of the water and throw these away; 
drain the others free from all water. 

Cook as you do the beans in fresh boiling salted 
water. Cook- from twenty minutes to one hour. 
Season with butter, salt, and pepper. While these 
two vegetables are cooking talk with your teacher 
about the other vegetables. 

As peas and beans have so much nutritive value, 
you can serve them as the main dish for a meal. It 
is a good thing, if there is time, to set the table and 
serve one of these vegetables with bread and butter, 
and a pitcher of cold milk. This is a good enough 
meal for any one on a summer's night. 



CHAPTER XXX 

GOOD THINGS TO REMEMBER THAT ARE 
OFTEN FORGOTTEN 

Do not keep dirty cloths under the sink. Ha doth 
is good enough to use again, wash it ; if not, throw it 
away. 

Dishes should never be washed under the faucet or 
in the kitchen sink. 

Scraps of food will not get into the sink if dishes, 
pots, and pans are scraped before washing, and the 
scraps put at once into the garbage-pail. 

No girl should wash her hands or face at the kitchen 
sink unless she uses a separate basin kept for this pur- 
pose. After the dirty water from the basin is poured 
down the pipes the sink should be thoroughly rinsed. 

Never throw any waste material from the window. 
You are breaking the laws as truly as if you stole an- 
other's property. 

Keep soiled clothes in a small barrel or a basket pro- 
vided for the purpose. Never let any dirty garment 
lie about for others to see, and never keep soiled 
clothes in the wash-tubs. 

Mice, cockroaches, and bedbugs will not visit a clean 
home — where the food is always covered, the beds 
washed weekly with kerosene, and roach-powder put in 
the cracks at the sight of the first waterbug. 

120 



GOOD THINGS TO REMEMBER 121 

There is an almost universal tendency to " run out 
and buy " just before a meal. This is expensive of 
both time and money. Market once a day for the next 
twenty- four hours. 

Every time any one allows the sink, bath-tub, toilet, 
or ice-box pan to run over, or carelessly spills water on 
the floor, she causes those in the apartment below to 
suffer, not for one day only ; the ceiling is spoiled and 
may not be recalcimined for years. It is the throwing 
of hair, matches, pieces of old cloth and such things 
down the toilet that causes it to run over. 

Order can become a habit. It does not take one 
minute longer to hang up a coat than to throw it on a 
chair. 

Do not use dishcloth or dish-towel for anything ex- 
cepting dishes. 



CHAPTER XXXI 
TESTS FOR PUPILS 

By this time every class should be able to cook a 
simple dish without the help of the teacher. The 
teacher can write down every mistake as she sees it 
but she will make no comment until the end pf the 
lesson. 

She will call a mistake any disorder in the arrange- 
ment of work ; any unnecessary untidiness in the per- 
sonal appearance of a girl, or in her manner of work- 
ing; any forgetfulness of what has been taught, or any 
failure to meet well an emergency. 

The class will be asked to prepare for cooking a cer- 
tain dish: cook it; do all dishwashing, sink cleaning, 
table cleaning, and towel washing that is necessary; 
also, see that the stove is left as it should be for a slow 
fire. 

At the end of the lesson the teacher can tell each girl 
of her errors. Beginning with one hundred, each mis- 
take may take ofif five ; a slight error may count but one 
off. 

Another way your teacher may test you is to write 
on slips of paper a' number of occupations which have 
been taught in class and allow each one of you to draw 
a slip. She will then expect you to perform the allotted 



TESTS FOR PUPILS 123 

task without assistance. The teacher will take a note 
of every mistake you make and subtract from one to 
five marks from the perfect mark of one hundred for 
each mistake. 

Some of the tasks you will be asked to do alone may 
be as follows : 

Task I. Set out everything necessary for making 
cocoa ; arrange kitchen-table ; see that draught, damper, 
and check are right for hot fire. Tell how cocoa is 
made. 

Task 2. Wash kitchen-table; clean sink with 
soda. 

Task 3. Wash out ice-box. 

Task 4. Take bed apart as for morning airing. 
Make bed. 

Task 5. Explain how to clean bed for bedbugs. 

Task 6, Show how you take rust from iron. 
Show how you clean tin. 

Task 7. Dust the front room as you would each 
morning. 

Task 8. Show how you clean the stove each morn- 
ing. Fix draught, check, and damper for starting fire. 
Fix draught, check, and damper as you would after fire 
is started. Fix draught, check, and damper to keep 
fire all night. 

Task 9. Set table for four ; clear dishes and pile as 
for washing. 

Task 10. Show what is needed for washing dishes, 
and how it should be done. 

Task 1 1 . Show how kitchen closet should be 
thoroughly cleaned. 



124 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

Task 12. Show how bread-box should be washed; 
how kept from smeUing musty. 

Task 13. Clean silver. Clean brass. 

And there are many other tests your teacher may 
give you. 



CHAPTER XXXII 

TEST QUESTIONS ON HOMEMAKING 

If a girl has really been interested in the work of 
homemaking and has studied conscientiously for a year 
this wonderful art, she should be able to answer the 
following questions, and many more. 

1. If you were furnishing a flat, what would you do 

with the floors ? 

2. What kind of furniture would you have in the 

kitchen ? 

3. What kind would you have in the parlor? 

4. What kind of beds would you buy? Why not 

wooden beds? 

5. What kind of curtains are best? 

6. How would you ask the landlord to decorate the 

walls of your flat? 

7. What do you do with damper, draught, and check 

before lighting fire? 

8. When fire is well started and you want a hot oven, 

how should draught and damper be set? 

9. When stove gets red-hot, how do you cool it off? 

10. When you want a fire to last over night what 

should you do ? 

11, How can the wrong use of draught and damper 

waste coal? 

I2S 



126 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

12. Why Is it better to poke a fire than to shake it? 

13. How often and when do you blacken the stove? 

14. If oven door is hot or dish in oven is hot, what do 

you use to handle it with? 

15. How often and when do you wash dish-towels? 

16. How do you keep a tin dishpan from getting rusty? 

17. What will take the rust from an iron sink? 

18. What is washing-soda for? 

19. In cleaning a kitchen thoroughly, do you clean the 

main part of kitchen first and then closets, or 
closets first? 

20. What would be the result if you put things back in 

closet before shelves were dry? 

21. Why do we use glass jars for dry groceries? 

22. If the wood of the closet smells, what do you add 

to the washing water? 

23. If you have a wooden pail or box to wash out, 

where should you put it to dry? Where not? 

24. What is kerosene good for ? 

25. If you find cockroaches, how do you get rid of 

them ? 

26. Where should you keep leftover food, such as milk 

or butter ? 

27. How keep milk from getting sour? 

28. How often should the ice-box be cleaned, and how ? 

29. How can you keep a garbage-can sweet and without 

smell ? 

30. How do you take rust from iron saucepans ? 

31. How do you wash windows? 

32. What is the best mattress for a bed? 

33. What mattress is cheaper, but still good? 



TEST QUESTIONS ON HOMEMAKING 127 

34. Why is a feather-bed unhealthful? 

35. How often should you turn a mattress? 

36. How long should a sheet be to tuck in well ? 

37. Why do we use a pad between the mattress and the 

sheet? 

38. What do you wash a bedstead with to prevent bed- 

bugs ? 

39. What do you use if bugs are found in the bed? 

40. What is necessary to do to a room in cleaning it 

every morning? 

41. What is the best kind of a dusting-cloth? 

42. When should a dry duster be used ? 

43. When should a damp duster be used? 

44. Is it good to use a feather duster? 

45. When must windows be opened? 

46. How must windows be opened ? 

47. When do you air the dining-room ? 

48. When do you dust the dining-room ? 

49. When do you brush up under the table ? 

50. What should the temperature of water be for wash- 

ing the dishes? 

51. What is the result if food is returned to closet be 

fore closet is dry? 

52. In airing a room, why do we open the windows 

both top and bottom ? 

53. What care do we give windows every morning? 

54. What makes the covers of a stove warp and 

crack ? 

55. What would you do with a very greasy pot or 

kettle if washing it in hot water was not suffi- 
cient to remove the grease ? 



128 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

56. Why is It necessary to flush the water-closet 

thoroughly ? 

57. What causes sewer gas? 

58. Why is it wrong to clean a bath-tub with sand- 

soap ? 

59. If the weather is cold, how can you keep the water 

from freezing while you are washing windows ? 

60. Give the order of work for weekly cleaning, be- 

ginning with the drawers. 

61. Give the order of morning work in a bedroom, 

beginning with the removing of the bed- 
clothes. 

62. Why is it well to have few woolen tablecloths, few 

useless fancy ornaments, and no stuffed chairs ? 

63. If you have n't money for meat, what food can 

take its place ? 

64. What is the danger if water-closet is not kept 

clean ? 

65. What are the diseases that can be prevented by 

letting plenty of air and sunshine into the 
house ? 

66. What will often prevent consumption? 
^7. What is the danger in dirt and dust ? 

68. How does so much dust and dirt get into our 

houses ? 

69. What sours milk? 

70. How much water should we drink each day? 

71. Why drink water? Where do we find water? 
^2. What makes garbage-can smell badly? 



RECIPES 
BEVERAGES 

Cocoa for One 

2 tsp. cocoa 
2 tsp, sugar 

1 cup milk 

■| cup water (boiling) 

Pinch of salt (for each cup) 

Dissolve cocoa and sugar and salt in boiling water, 
in saucepan or upper part of double boiler. Cook five 
minutes, add milk, place over fire until hot, or if made 
in double boiler over hot water until scalded. 

Coffee 

For each cup : 

2 tbsp. coffee 

I cup cold water 

Rinse coffee-pot with freshly boiled water. Put in 
coffee. Pour on cold water and let it slowly come to 
the boiling-point. 

Tea 

Have freshly boiled water. Rinse tea-pot. Put 
into it I tsp. tea for each cup. Pour on water and let 
stand just a few minutes (about five) and serve. 

129 



I30 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

TOASTS 

Dry Toast 

Bread is best for toast when two or three days old. 
Cut bread in ;J-inch slices and place on a broiler or 
hold on a long fork over clear red coals until done 
golden brown. When done on one side, turn and 
brown on other side. Toast should be served as soon 
as made, with butter or with milk or with white sauce. 

Milk Sauce for Toast 

For 6 slices of bread 

2 cups milk (scalded) 

add 
^ tsp. nutmeg 
•| tsp. salt 
I tbsp. butter 
I tbsp. sugar 
Pour over toast. 

White Sauce for Toast for Six 

2^ tbsp. butter 

3 " flour 
■| tsp. salt 

I pt. milk 

Melt butter in upper part of double boiler or sauce- 
pan. Add flour and salt, and stir to a smooth paste. 
Remove from fire, stir in milk. Put back on fire, over 
hot water if made in double boiler, and cook until it 
thickens. Pour over toast. 



RECIPES 131 

Cream-Toast with Cheese 

Make toast 

Make white sauce as in last recipe. 

To white sauce just before taking from fire, add 
■| cup grated cheese. When cheese is meUed pour over 
toast. 

CEREAL PUDDINGS 

FOR SIX SERVINGS 

Farina with Dates 
3 cups boihng water 
I cup farina 

I tsp. salt 

Put boiling water and salt in top part of double 
boiler. Add farina slowly while water is boiling, stir- 
ring constantly. Cook over fire until mixture thickens. 
Then place over hot water in double boiler. Steam 30 
minutes. A few minutes before serving add i cup of 
dates washed and cut in small pieces. 

Steamed Rice 

I cup rice 

3 cups boiling water 

I tsp. salt 

Add washed rice slowly to boiling salted water in 
upper part of double boiler. Then place over hot water 
in lower part of double boiler. Steam 30 minutes, at 
least. Serve with cream and sugar. 



132 PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

Rice Pudding 

4 cups milk 
^ cup rice 
^ tsp. salt 
^ cup sugar 

Few gratings nutmeg or i tsp. vanilla 

Wash rice. Mix all ingredients together in bowl, 
pour into a buttered baking dish. Bake 3 hrs. in slow 
oven. 

When time is limited, wash rice, put in scalded milk 
(4 cups), steam 20 minutes. Add sugar, salt and 
flavoring. Pour in buttered baking dish. Bake 30 to 
40 minutes. 

Indian Pudding 

I qt. scalded milk 
8 tbsp. corn meal 
-| cup molasses 
I tsp. salt 

I tsp. ginger 

Pour milk slowly on meal. Cook in double boiler 
15 min. Add molasses, salt and ginger. Pour into 
buttered baking-dish. Bake 2 hrs. in slow oven. 



FRUITS 

Baked Apple 

Wash and core tart apples. Place in a shallow 
baking-pan. Fill centers with i tbsp, sugar for each 



RECIPES 133 

apple. Pour over boiling water enough to cover bot- 
tom of pan well. Sprinkle with nutmeg or cinnamon. 
Bake in moderate oven until tender when pierced with 
a fork. During baking, dip spoonsful of syrup over 
apples two or three times. Serve hot or cold with or 
without cream. 

Stewed Apples 

Select sour apples for cooking. 

Wash, pare, and cut into quarters. Remove cores. 
For every 4 whole apples make a syrup of the follow- 
ing : 

I cup sugar | cup water 

Drop in apples and cook until clear, stirring care- 
fully to avoid breaking, i tbsp. lemon juice, or ^ tsp. 
nutmeg may be added, where apples lack flavor. 

Apple-Sauce 

Wash and pare 6 nice sour apples. Cut in slices. 
Put in saucepan with water enough to prevent their 
burning to pan. Cook until tender or soft. Just be- 
fore taking from fire, add i tbsp. sugar for each apple. 
Stir well. Take from fire, and strain through fine 
strainer. A sprinkling of nutmeg or cinnamon adds 
flavor to apple-sauce. 

POTATO RECIPES 

Mashed Potatoes 

Put hot boiled potatoes through a sieve or ricer, or 
mash with potato-masher. For six medium-sized pota- 



134 ■ PRACTICAL HOMEMAKING 

toes add 2 tbsp. butter, i tsp. salt, few grains pepper, 
enough milk to make creamy, about ^ cup. Beat well 
to make light. Pile on hot dish and serve. 

Rice Potatoes 

Force hot boiled potatoes through a potato-ricer or 
coarse strainer. Serve lightly piled on hot vegetable- 
dish. 

Creamed Potatoes with Cheese for Six 

4 cups cold boiled potatoes (diced) 

I pt. white sauce 

■| lb. store cheese (cut in small pieces) 

Reheat the diced potatoes in the white sauce to which 
the.chjeese has been added. 

Fried Potatoes 

Cut cold boiled potatoes in cubes or slices. Melt in 
frying-pan 3 tbsp. butter for each cup cold diced potato. 
Put in potatoes. Fry until well browned. 

Eggs 
Dropped Egg on Toast. 
Butter inside of muffin ring and put in frying-pan of 
hot water to which one-half tablespoon salt has been 
added. Break egg into saucer, then slip into ring, 
allowing water to cover egg. Place on frying-pan a 
tin cover and set on back of range. Let stand until 
white of egg is of jelly-like consistency. Take up ring 
and egg, using a buttered griddle-cake turner; then 
onto a piece of buttered toast. 



APPENDIX 



135 



SUITABLE FURNISHING FOR A MODEL 

HOUSEKEEPING FLAT OR HOME FOR 

FIVE PEOPLE* 

Kitchen Furnishing. 

Stove, coal stove if necessary, $ 9.00 

Connected with stove : 

Poker 06 

Rake 11 

Whisk broom 13 

Blacking brush & dauber 25 

Stove lifter 06 

Shovel 08 

Coal scuttle 35 

$ 10.04 



Woodenware. 

Kitchen Table 2.40 

Chair 50 

Bread Board 20 

Moulding Board 40 

Spoon 10 

Rolling pin 15 

Chopping bowl 20 

Clothes horse 65 

4.60 

* This furnishing is also necessary for a model Housekeeping 
Center in connection vith a school, where homemaking lessons 
are given. 

137 



138 APPENDIX 

Iron-, Tin- and Wireware. 

Tin sugar box $ .52 

Tin flour box 52 

Strainer 25 

Measuring cup 10 

Bread box 66 

Wire egg beater 05 

Grater 05 

Potato masher .10 

Tea Strainer .03 

Can Opener .08 

Cork Screw 10 

Kitchen forks (3) 30 

Griddle spade : 03 

Biscuit cutter , 02 

Dishpans (2) 50 

Pie tins (2) @ .07 14 

Layer cake pans (2) @ .04 08 

Apple corer 05 

Funnel 05 

Cake pans (loaf) (2) 20 

Pepper shaker 05 

Salt shaker 05 

Saucepan covers (2) 20 

Flour sifter 10 

Match box 05 



Bread knife 60 

Chopping knife .15 

Kitchen knives (3) 36 

Skimmer 08 

Paring knives (3) 30 

Toaster 10 



$ 4-27 



APPENDIX 



139 



Trays (2) $ 

Iron frying pan (large) 

Iron frying pan (small) 

Carving knife 

Garbage can 

Ash can 



30 
28 
12 
30 
35 
45 



Agateware. 

Double boiler (i qt.) 0.55 

Saucepans (2) 50 

Wash basins (2) 36 

Coffee pot 35 

Teakettle .50 



Earthen- and Glassware. 

Large yellow bowls (2) 0.30 

Medium yellow bowl 10 

Butter jar (glass) 29 

Pitcher (qt.) 20 

Lemon squeezer 05 

Glass jars (13^ doz.) 80 



Brooms and Brushes. 

Hard broom 0.45 

Whisk broom 18 

Dust pan 10 

Scrubbing brushes, small (4) 20 

Scrubbing brush, large (i) 15 

Waste paper basket 35 

Soft floor brush 70 



$ 3.39 



2.26 



1-74 



2.13 



140 APPENDIX 

For Sink. 

Soap dishes (2) .$ 0.36 

Sink brush 08 

Sink strainer 18 

Sink shovel 05 



$ .^7 



For Washing and Ironing. 

Wash boiler 

Washboard (large) 

Washboard ( small ) 

Ironing board 

Padding for ironing board . . . 

Covering for pad 

Sandpaper 

Pulley line 

Pulley (2) 

Clothespins ( 100) 

Iron stand 

Flatirons (3) 



f-i5 
•45 
•25 
•95 
•49 
.24 
.01 

•25 
.20 

•15 
•05 
•30 



4^49 



Kitchen Linen. 

Dusters (4) 2 yds. Cheesecloth o.io 

Cleaning cloths (12) 3 yds. muslin ... .18 

Floor cloths (2) 36 

Pot cloths (2) 20 

Dish towels (12) 11 cts. yd 1.32 

Small hand towels (6) 33 

Dish cloths (3) 15 

Broom bag 10 

Polishing cloths (2) 20 



APPENDIX 141 



Chambray for bags (to hold paper, 

string, clothespins, etc.) 3 yds $ .33 



Dining Room Furnishing. 

Table 5.00 

Chairs (6) 4.50 



Table Linen. 

Napkins (i doz.) 1.50 

Plate doilies (i doz.) 1.44 

Tumbler doilies ( i doz. ) .48 



$ 3-27 



9-50 



Table Silver. 

Knives (i doz.) - 1.80 

Forks ( I doz. ) 1.20 

Tablespoons (4) 40 

Soup spoons ( I doz.) 1.20 

Teaspoons (i doz.) 60 

Butter knife 10 



China and Glassware. 

Dinner plates ( i doz.) 1.80 

Tea plates (i doz.) 1.44 

Soup plates (i doz.) 1.44 

Bread and butter plates (i doz.) .... i.oo 

Cups and saucers ( i doz.) 2.66 

Large platter 65 

Small platter 35 

Vegetable dish 55 

Dessert dishes (i doz.) i.oo 

Tea-pot 55 

Pitcher 45 

Water glasses ( i doz.) 48 



342 



5-30 



142 APPENDIX 

Sugar bowl (glass) $ .15 

Milk pitcher (glass) 15 

Salt shaker (glass) 19 

Pepper shaker (glass) .' .19 



Living Room Furnishing. 

Folding couch 6.00 

Rocker , 3.25 

Arm chair 2.50 

Waste paper basket 50 

Scrim curtains (9 yds.) 1.80 

Curtain rods (3) 75 

Desk (kitchen table stained) 3.75 

Stain for table 20 

Rack for back of desk i.oo 

Couch cover (denim) 6 yds 90 



Bedroom Furnishing. 

Iron beds, single (2) 12.00 

Crib ( I ) 6.50 

Mattresses (2) . 9.60 

Crib mattress 4.00 

Pillows (4) 4.00 

Small rocker 2.00 

Straight-back chair 2.00 

Chiffonier 7.50 

Mirror 1.50 

Muslin curtains (6 yds.) .75 

Rods (2) 20 



Bedding and Bath-Room Linen. 

Comforters (3) 4.50 

Blankets (3) 4.50 



$ 13-05 



20.65 



50-05 



APPENDIX 143 

Crib blanket $ 1.50 

Bed padding, i yd. 60 in. wide 82 

Bed padding, ^ yd. 36 in. wide . .39 

Sheets (12) 54 x 99 in 7.68 

Crib sheets (4) 1.52 

Spreads, large (4) 6.00 

Spreads, small (2) 2.00 

Pillow cases (8) 2.00 

Face towels (12) 1.20 

Bath towels (6) 1.74 

Bath mat 54 

Face cloths (12) 50 

$ 34-89 

Total 173-72 

This is a completely furnished home. If a girl has not 
sufficient money to buy everything, she can wait for 
many things. Also, by taking time for shopping she may 
be able to find many of the articles at less expense. 

ADDITIONAL SUGGESTIONS FOR HOMEMAKERS. 

To Stain a floor, the natural wood should be well 
cleaned and dried. If the floor has been painted, remove 
the paint with lye and hot water, being careful not to let 
the lye touch clothing and hands. For staining floors, 
oak floor stain, without varnish, is good. One quart is 
enough to stain two rooms. When perfectly dry, shellac 
with white shellac. Dry for twenty- four hours ; then wax 
with common floor wax. 

There should not be a shade in the kitchen window, as 
it must be open from the top, and the shade gets torn 
and becomes ragged. For protection have muslin half 
curtains; 



.144 APPENDIX 

When purchasing the kitchen stove, be sure that it has 
a hot-water boiler, if hot water is not furnished with the 
flat. 

A window-seat in the dining-room, made of pine and 
stained, is a convenience. Under this seat there may be 
shelves, and there should be a door in front, hinged from 
the top. In this can be kept the table linen, bed linen, 
or boots and shoes, etc. 

In each bedroom a shelf, from which hangs a curtain, 
is needed if closets are not built in the fiat. A seat with 
closet underneath, similar to that in the living-room, 
may be built in one bedroom to hold the children's 
toys. 

Shelves for china in the dining-room are better than a 
sideboard, the latter being too large for an ordinary tene- 
ment room. Cheap sideboards are also very ugly. 

Book-shelves are a necessity in the living-room, and 
shelves in the kitchen, under which the pots, pans, brooms, 
etc., hang, and on which stand the glass jars for dry 
groceries. 

The furniture (which is better bought in the white) 
and all shelves, excepting those in the kitchen, can be 
stained with alcohol stain. If the furniture is varnished 
and one wishes to stain it, remove the varnish with var- 
nish-remover, then wash the wood clean with benzine. 
After it is dry, stain with alcohol-stain, or, if it is a 
hard wood, rub with linseed-oil without staining. 

Alcohol-stain is made by mixing dry aniline-stain with 
alcohol. The proportion of each should be regulated.ac- 
cording to the shade desired — if the color is too dark, 
add more alcohol ; if too light, add more stain. After 
staining, furniture should be rubbed down with any good 
furniture or floor wax. 



APPENDIX 145 

A rack for letters and papers to be used 011 the desk 
can easily be made by any carpenter and stained with al- 
icohol-stain. 

An extra bureau can be made from a soap-box, with 
shelf and legs added. This can be stained and a cretonne 
curtain hung in front. 

A good receptacle for soiled clothes is a pickle barrel, 
price fifty cents. Holes should be bored in the sides to 
admit air, and a barrel top may be purchased at any hard- 
ware-store. This is kept in the kitchen and serves also 
as a seat. 

A screen is necessary in the bedroom for privacy. 
This may be made of a clotheshorse, painted and hung 
with burlap. Brass tacks in the top of the screen serve 
as knobs. On these the burlap curtain hangs by brass 
rings. This makes it easy to take off and clean, and is 
better than a gathered curtain tacked fast. 

A trundle-bed, which can be pushed under the iron bed 
in the daytime, is a great convenience in crowded quar- 
ters. 

A box about three feet high and one and one-half feet 
wide, with one shelf in the center, is needed in the 
kitchen. In one half can be placed kindling wood and in 
the other paper. 

If a bin is not provided in the cellar, a coal-box hold- 
ing one hundred pounds is a saving, since coal costs forty 
cents for one hundred pounds and twenty-five cents a 
bushel. 

Every glass jar in the kitchen should have printed on 
it the name of the commodity it holds, the printing to be 
done with a very small brush and black, ready-mixed 
paint. After it is thoroughly dry, paint over with white 
liquid shellac. The jars can then be washed without in- 
juring the painted name. 



146 APPENDIX 

Teacups may be hung under the shelves in the kitchen 
china-closet, in order to economize space. 

If there is a bath-room in the flat, have a shelf built 
above the bath-tub for cleaning materials ; also, a rack to 
hold tooth-brushes, and a rack for towels and wash- 
cloths. Each member of the family should have his own 
soap, soap-dish, and towel. 

If there is not a bath-room in the flat, white enamel 
basins may be hung on the side of the bureaus, where 
also there must be towel-racks. The basins may be taken 
to the kitchen sink for bathing purposes, as running water 
is always preferable, and washstands take up space, are 
a nuisance, and seldom are kept clean. 

A few good pictures add a great deal to a home. It is 
well to have these on the living-room wall. If it is de- 
sired to have pictures in the bedrooms, a sanitary way 
is to paste the prints on the painted walls and to wash 
them over with liquid shellac. Pictures and wall may 
then be washed at the same time. 



INDEX 



INDEX 



Agateware, care of, 80 

cost of, 139 
Air, pure and impure, 38 
Alcohol bath, 107 
Ants, how to exterminate, 78 
Apple, food value of, 89 

sauce, recipe, 133 
Ashes, disposal of, 68, 6g 

Baked apples, 89 

apples, recipe, 132 
Baking potatoes, 75 
Banana, food value of, 88 
Barren Island garbage plant, 69 
Bath, alcohol, 107 
Bathing sick person, 105-107 

the feet, 43 
Bathroom linen, 142 
Baths, 39 

Bath-tubs, care of, 65 
Bed bath for sick, 105 

of sick person, care of, no 
Bedbugs, exterminating, 92 
Bedding, cost of, 142 
Bedmaking, 31 
Bedroom furnishing, cost of, 

142 
Bedrooms, 29 

cleaning, 93 
Bedspreads, 31, 143 
Beds, 7, 30, 142 

cleaning, 92 



Beets, cooking, 118 
Blacking the stove, 13 
Blankets, 31, 142 
Boiling potatoes, 74 
Brass, to clean, 95 
Bread and cake, how to keep, 
84 

food value of, ig, 54 
Bread-box, care of, 78 
Breakfast, cost of, 55 

for invalid, 114 

preparing, 47-50 

setting the table, 45 
Brickets, 14 
Broom, care of, 35 
Brooms, cost of, 139 
Brushes, cost of, 139 
Bureaus, 7 
Butter, care of, 84 

food value of, 55 

Cabbage, cooking, 118 
Carbohydrates,- definition, 53 
Care in the home, 120, 121 
Carpets, unsanitary, 5 
Cauliflower, cooking, 118 
Cereal puddings, recipes, 131 
Cereals, food value of, 54 

partially cooked, 26 

prepared, 26 

raw, 25 

time-table for cooking, 25 



149 



ISO 



INDEX 



Chairs, 7 

Charcoal, 14 

Cheese, food value of, 23 

China, cost of, 141 

City government departments, 

57 
Cleaning bath-tubs, 65 

brass, 95 

bedrooms, 93 

beds, 92 

clothes-closet, 91, 92 

garbage can, 67 

ice-box, 83 

kitchen, 85 

kitchen closets, ^7 

kitchen utensils, 78-81 

nickel, 96 

painted woodwork, 85 

sink, 61, 62 

silver, 96 

wash-tubs, 64 

water-closets, 63 

window-box, 83 
Clothes-closet, cleaning, 91, 92 
Coal, anthracite, cost, 14 

bituminous, 14 

history and description, 14 

saving and wasting, 13 
Cockroaches, how to eliminate, 

78 
Cocoa, 16-18 

making, 18 

recipe, 129 
Coflfee, not a food, 53 

recipe, 129 
Combing hair of sick person, 

109 
Cooking apples, 89 
cereals, 25-27 
fruit, 89 



Cooking vegetables, 118 
Corn, cooking, 118 
Cosmetics, 41 
Cream-toast with cheese, 23 

recipe, 131 
Curtains, 7 

Dampers, use of, 11 
Dining-room furnishings, 141 
Dish-towels, 23 
Dishwashing, 20-21 
Draughts, stove, management 

of, II, 12 
Dry toast, recipe, 130 
Dusters, 2,^ 
Dusting, 35 

Earthernware, cost of, 139 
Eggs on toast, recipe, 134 

value of for sick, 115 
Enamelware, care of, 80 
Etiquette for the table, 97-100 
Exercise, value of, 39 
Eyes, care of, 44 

Fats, definition, 53 
Farina with dates, recipe, 131 
Feet, bathing, of sick person, 
108 

care of, 43 
Fire-making, 12 
Floors, 5 
Food and the skin, 38 

perishable, care of, 84 
Food-value of apple, 89 

of banana, 88 

of bread, 19, 54 

of butter, 55 

of cereals, 54 

of cheese, 23 



INDEX 



151 



Food-value of cocoa, 17 

of eggs, 115 

of fruit, 88 

of grapes, 89 

of milk, 17, 54 

of oats, 26 

of onion, 52 

of parsnip, 51 

of potato, 74 

of rice, 26 

of rye, 27 

of sugar, 17 

of vegetables, 117 

of wheat, 27 
Food-values, 51-56 
Fruit, 88 

Garbage, Barren Island dis- 
posal plant, 6g, 70 

disposal, 67, 69 

law, relating to, 66 

receptacles, 66 
Garbage-can, care of, 67 
Glass jars for food, 78 
Glassware, cost of, 139, 141 
Grapes, food value of, 89 

Hair, care of, 41 

Hands, care of, 41 

Health Department, duties, 57 

Home, definition of, 2i7 

model, 3-9 
Hotel garbage disposal, 70 
Hygiene of the body, 39 44 

Ice-box, 83 

Indian pudding, recipe, 132 
Invalid's meal, how to serve, 
112 
tray, 112 



Ironing utensils, 81, 140 
Ironware, care of, 79 
cost of, 138 

Kindling wood, 15 
Kitchen, cleaning, 85 

closets, cleaning, yy 

furnishings, 6, 137 

linen, 80, 140 

sink, care of, 60 

utensils, cleaning, 78-81 

Lima beans, cooking, 118 
Linen for kitchen, 80, 140 

for table, 141 
Living-room furnishing, 142 

Marketing, 121 
Matches, 15 
Mattresses, 30, 142 
Milk, 17, 54 
care of, 84 
Milk-bottles, cleaning, 21 
Milk-toast, making, 19 
Model home, 3-9 
Morning bath, 39 

Nails, care of, 41 

New York Tenement-House 

laws, 9 
Nickel, cleaning, 96 

Oats, food value of, 26 
Odors, significance of, 102-104 
Olive oil, 84 
Onion, food value of, 52 
Onions, cooking, 118 
Orderliness, 36, 120, 121 
Ornaments, useful vs. useless, 
8 



152 



INDEX 



Pad for bed, 31, 143 
Painted walls, 6 
Pans and kettles, cleaning, 21 
Parsnips, food value of, 51 
Peas, cooking, iig 
Pillows, 30 

Plumbing laws, 58, 59 
Police Department, duties, 57 
Potato, food value of, 74 
Potato, history and descrip- 
tion, 72, "^2, 

how to bake, TS 

how to boil, 74 
Potatoes, mashed, recipe, 133 

rice, recipe, 134 
Protein, definition, 52 
Puddings, recipes, 132 

Range, construction of, 11 
Recipes — 

Apple sauce, 133 

Baked apple, 132 

Cereal puddings, 131 

Cocoa, 129 

Coffee, 129 

Cream-toast with cheese, 131 

Creamed potatoes, 134 

Eggs on toast, 134 

Farina with dates, 131 

Fried potatoes, 134 

Indian pudding, 132 

Mashed potatoes, 133 

Milk sauce for toast, 130 

Rice potatoes, 134 

Rice pudding, 132 

Steamed rice, 131 

Stewed apples, 133 

Tea, 129 

Toast, 130 

White sauce for toast, 130 



Rice, food value of, 26 

pudding, recipe, 132 

steamed, recipe, 131 
Riker's Island ash dump, 69 
Roaches, 120 
Rubbish, disposal of, 68 
Rye, food value of, 27 

Servants, 98 

Serving bread and butter, 100 

invalid's meal, 112 

tea, 99 

toast, loi 
Sewer traps, 59 
Sheets, 31, 143 

changing for sick person, 
no 
Shoes, selection of, 43 
Sick, care of, 105-110 

food for, 114 

serving meal, 112 
Silver, cleaning, 96 
Sink, care of, 60 

utensils for, 22, 140 
Skin, care of, ZT, 38, 40 
Soiled clothes, .120 
Space, beauty of, 3 
Spinach, cooking, 118 
Stewed apples, recipe, 133 
Stockings, 43 
Stove, blacking, 13 

furnishings, 12, 137 

how to understand, 10 
Street Cleaning Department, 

duties 57 
String beans, cooking, ii8j 119 
Sugar, food value of, 17 
Sunlight and hygiene, 39 
Sweeping, 34 

Table linen, 141 



INDEX 



153 



Table setting, 45 

silver, 141 
Tables, 7 

washing, 28 
Tasks for pupils, 123 
Tea, preparing and serving, 99 

recipe, 129 
Tea-tray, loi 

Teeth, brushing, for sick per- 
son, 109 

care of, 42 
Tenement house, definition of, 

57 
Time for cooking cereals, 25 

for cooking vegetables, 118 
Tinware, care of, 79 

cost of, 138 
Toast-making, 19 

serving, loi 

sauces for, recipe, 130 
Tomatoes, cooking, 118 
Towels, cost of, 143 

Tray for invalid, how to 
prepare, 113 



Vegetables, cooking, 118 

food value of, 117 
Vermin, 120 

Walls, 5 

Washing dishes, 20, 21 

dish-towels, 23 

milk-bottles, 21 

tables, 28 

utensils, cost of, 140 

windows, 86 
Wash-tubs, care of, 64 
Water, importance of in food, 

52 
Waterbugs, 120 
Water-closet, care of, 63 
Water-seal, 59 
Wheat, food value of, 27 
White Sauce, how to make, 76 
Window-box, 82, 83 
Windows, washing, 86 
Wood, kindling, 15 
Woodenware, care of, 79 

cost of, 137 
Woodwork, cleaning, 85 



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